Press secretary Sean Spicer declared this White House would "hold the media accountable." | Getty Trump's media relations get rocky quickly Sean Spicer's unusual scolding of the press portends a longer war over administration coverage.

It took just over 24 hours into the new administration for the relationship between the Trump White House and the media to blow up into a furious row.

Calling the media in for a Saturday afternoon statement without taking any questions, White House press secretary Sean Spicer angrily scolded reporters for engaging in “deliberate falsehoods,” for tweeting images that he said minimized the crowd size at President Donald Trump's inauguration and for an inaccurate pool report about a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. being removed from the Oval Office. This White House, Spicer declared, would "hold the media accountable."


The photos in question, reported by numerous outlets, showed aerial images of the identical space on the national Mall during Trump’s inaugural and former President Barack Obama’s in 2009. The crowds at Trump’s appeared much smaller — which Spicer claimed was due to white flooring laid down for Trump’s inaugural that wasn’t there for Obama’s. The inaccurate report on the King bust had long been retracted and corrected by a Time magazine reporter.

But it wasn’t the relative merits of Spicer’s complaints — he insisted, without offering evidence, that the crowd at Trump’s inauguration was the largest in history — that stood out. Rather, it was Spicer’s tone of furious grievance.

"Yesterday at the time the nation and world was watching the peaceful transition of power, and as the president said the transition and the balance of power from Washington citizen of the United States, some members of the media were engaged in deliberately false reporting," Spicer declared from the podium, going on to claim the media had purposely distorted images of the inauguration.

Many in the media and politics reacted with shock, with some suggesting the statement was a deliberate provocation to distract from the Women's March on Washington or other issues.

Ari Fleischer, White House press secretary under former President George W. Bush, explained it this way: "This is called a statement you're told to make by the President. And you know the President is watching," Fleischer tweeted. "So, while press is stunned & can't believe it, Sean is getting praised by his boss & co-workers now. [Mainstream Media] is from Venus. [White House] is from Mars."

Most outlets had resorted to pictures to try to capture the crowd size at Trump’s inauguration precisely because the new president had repeatedly warred with the media during the campaign over its use of numerical estimates for turnout at his rallies.

The aerial photos from identical times on inauguration day 2009 and 2017 did not appear to be distorted in any way. Some viewing stands along the inaugural parade route and notably by the White House were also empty, though NBC's Katy Tur reported that the Inaugural Committee said it was partly due to buses being late leaving the inaugural luncheon.

Beyond photographic evidence, news organizations also cited Washington's Metro system. which noted that as of 11 a.m. Friday, 193,000 rides had been taken. For Obama's inauguration in 2009, ridership was at 513,000 at the same time, the Metro system reported. Presidents take the oath of office at about noon on Inauguration Day.

"These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong," Spicer said.

The National Park Service does not issue official crowd estimates, a fact Spicer noted.

Spicer also blasted the report by Time magazine reporter Zeke Miller that said the bust of King had been removed from the Oval Office when it had not. Miller apologized via the pool report and on Twitter, and Spicer had tweeted "Apology accepted."

Thus, his effort to return to the issue seemed surprising, leading many outlets to speculate that Trump’s communications team was repeating a tactic from his campaign, when the candidate would try to shift the media attention off of negative stories by doing or saying something aimed at grabbing attention.

Spicer's statement from the briefing room came soon after hundreds of thousands of people were participating in a "Women's March" on the National Mall. News organizations extensively reported on the marches, with similar protests happening in cities around the world.

Again, due to no official crowd estimate, many news organizations turned to photos and to the Washington Metro system as a barometer. Metro said that as of 11 a.m. Saturday, the ridership count was at 275,000.

Saturday’s statement by Spicer was a far cry from his first on-camera briefing as incoming White House press secretary on Thursday. At the time, he put on a more calm and collected face , taking questions from many different news organizations.

But that tone of moderation was gone on Saturday. His first official briefing will be Monday in the White House press room.

"This kind of dishonesty in the media, the challenging that bringing about our nation together is making it more difficult," Spicer said on Saturday. "There's been a lot of talk in the media about the responsibility to hold Donald Trump accountable. I'm here to tell you that it goes two ways. We're going to hold the press accountable as well."