"Fake news" was the straw that broke White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's back on Tuesday. During his first press briefing in 15 days, Spicer cited a retweet by incoming New York Times reporter Shane Goldmacher to illustrate an example of "fake news" to CNN's Jim Acosta.
"[Goldmacher] retweeted that the president was being booed by disrespecting the Italian prime minister," Spicer charged. "When in fact you all, in every one of the meetings that we sit in, watch the president with that one ear piece that has been used by other presidents. And yet the president did a great job at NATO."
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Out of view of the camera, though, The New York Times' Peter Baker was apparently shaking his head. "I mean, it's true, you did it," Spicer told him.
"Reporters make mistakes," Baker said; Goldmacher had later corrected his original retweet with a statement from Spicer himself.
"But that's fake—" Spicer began to go on.
Baker jumped in again: "Your trip was all over the front page. You're making something out of one tweet."
"With all due respect, I was asked to give an example and I did it," Spicer shot back.
Quickly thereafter, Spicer shut down the press conference and walked away from the podium — but not before he had one last question about fake news shouted at his back. Jeva Lange
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