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Could The News Media Stage An Intervention For Sean Spicer?

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Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol had never seen one of White House press secretary Sean Spicer's daily briefings, at least until Friday, when Kristol was at MSNBC just as Spicer's combative back-and-forth with reporters aired live. His conclusion? "The non-stop dishonesty and irresponsibility is amazing," Kristol wrote on Twitter.

MSNBC host Joy Reid, noting that Spicer had once again accused Hillary Clinton of giving Russia one-fifth of U.S. uranium deposits in exchange for $145 million in donations to the Clinton Foundation, seemed worried for Spicer, asking in a tweet "is the @presssec salary really worth throwing away your dignity over?"

Could an intervention be in the works for Spicer, a longtime cable news regular who has, since taking on the role of speaking for President Trump, become increasingly described as a liar?

Just a few weeks ago, after being subjected to repeated mockery by NBC's Saturday Night Live, Spicer was seen as an amiable man in a no-win position. As Kelly McPartland wrote in Canada's National Post, "you have to feel a bit sorry for Spicer. Not only was his hopeless, hapless position captured perfectly in Melissa McCarthy’s hilarious spoof on Saturday Night Live, but it’s now clear he is stuck trying to defend a president who lives to prove himself unsuited to his office."

But the tide seems to have turned for Spicer. Vice on Friday described Spicer as "White House press secretary and walking bummer."

Vanity Fair published a story describing Spicer as "desperate" for the media to talk about anything other than Russia, saying "the White House press secretary began to volunteer a series of increasingly tangential and conspiratorial stories he suggested the press should be chasing instead."

CNN's Dylan Byers concluded recently that Spicer "has lost his credibility."

Increasingly, journalists who expect spin from the press secretary are accusing Spicer of flat-out lying, and that has sparked a vigorous push-back from the press corps.

The New York Times on Friday followed Spicer's press briefing with a story that dissected Spicer's statements and fact-checked them, concluding that Spicer "continued...to use misdirection and misleading claims."

The humor of Melissa McCarthy's portrayal of Spicer seems to have faded as Spicer's interactions with reporters in the briefing room grow increasingly combative--and the media shows more and more willingness to call Spicer a liar.

As MSNBC's Reid said Friday, when Spicer "is this willing to lie and utilize conspiracy theories, the democratic process is harmed."

The shift in tone was perhaps best captured in comments made by Jen Psaki, President Obama's communications director, who urged Spicer to think of his own future after the Trump White House. "Remember that your credibility is more important than the length of time you stay in a job," Psaki said in an interview on the DC/BS podcast. "He has to be conscious and cognizant every single day when he goes to that podium about the fact that he's not an old guy and he's going to have a long career after this potentially," she said. "That's a big, meta piece of advice, but it's one I would suggest."

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