Sean Spicer criticized journalists for becoming too opinionated, only writing negative stories, and making factual errors that he said undercut the entire profession. | Getty Spicer splits with Bannon about the press

President Donald Trump’s press secretary said Monday night that he does not agree with White House chief strategist Steve Bannon that the media is “the opposition party” and should “keep its mouth shut.”

Days after Bannon unloaded his scathing assessment of the media in a rare interview with the New York Times, Spicer tried to walk the tightrope of staying in line with the administration he represents, while not completely alienating the press corps he has to face off with every day. Spicer chose to strike a far more conciliatory tone about the administration’s view of the media, telling an audience of college students: “The press plays a very healthy role in democracy, no question about it.”


But he added, "They're not the only game in town anymore."

Spicer was speaking at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, where he was interviewed on stage by former CNN Washington bureau chief Frank Sesno, who pressed him on whether he agreed with Bannon's dark view of the press.

“No,” Spicer said when asked if he agreed. “I’m not disagreeing that he’s got a point. That’s his view.”

Spicer tried to explain that Bannon’s cynical view of the media — in the interview he said “the media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while” — was born out of frustration about negative coverage.

“Steve has worked really hard with the President, during the campaign and the transition, to implement some really great ideas and policies that are helping Americans,” Spicer said. “A lot of times, when you pick up the paper or stare up at the TV, and you see the headlines and the chyrons, and you realize they’re not even being straight, it’s unbelievably disappointing.”

Spicer also criticized journalists for becoming too opinionated, only writing negative stories, and making factual errors that he said undercut the entire profession. "Basic facts of many of these stories have unbelievable errors in them," he said.

He used, as an example, the coverage of Bannon’s extraordinary elevation to a permanent seat on the National Security Council, which Spicer claimed was misreported as a demotion of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who will no longer have an automatic seat on the principals committee. At the press briefing Monday, Spicer said the chair, Gen. Joseph Dunford, was allowed to attend any NSC meeting he wanted to attend and that the change was being blown out of proportion.

At GW, Spicer also admitted his first go-round in front of the podium in the briefing room on the Saturday after the inauguration — where he took no questions and made false statements about the crowd size at Trump’s inauguration — could have gone more smoothly.

“I probably should have taken questions that day,” he conceded. Spicer's angry, defensive performance was widely panned, even down to his ill-fitting gray suit. Even Trump, who sent him out there, was reportedly unhappy with his performance. “I looked at my suit choice and made some changes there,” Spicer joked Monday night. “I get plenty of fashion tips now."

He did not, however, concede on the meat of the matter: He maintained that Trump's inauguration drew the largest audience of any inauguration in history.