## Day 2: War on media.

By [Matt Kiser](/content/author/matt-kiser/index.html)

Jan 21, 2017

This edition is 199 words, a 1‑minute read.

1. **Photos comparing Trump’s inauguration crowd to the Women’s March** ( [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/21/politics/womens-march-donald-trump-inauguration-sizes/index.html))  
2. **White House press secretary Sean Spicer attacked media for accurately reporting inauguration crowds.** “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,” Spicer said, contradicting all available data. Aerial photos have indicated that former president Barack Obama’s first inauguration attracted a much larger crowd. Nielsen ratings show that Obama also had a bigger television audience. Spicer, at times almost yelling while reading a prepared statement, took no questions. ( [CNN](http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/21/media/sean-spicer-press-secretary-statement/index.html))  
3. **Trump used his first full day in office on Saturday to unleash a remarkably bitter attack on the news media**, falsely accusing journalists of both inventing a rift between him and intelligence agencies and deliberately understating the size of his inauguration crowd. ( [NY Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/politics/trump-white-house-briefing-inauguration-crowd-size.html))  
4. **Trump says he has “running war” with media, criticizes the “dishonest media,” gets facts wrong, in CIA speech.** ( [CNN](http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/21/media/donald-trump-war-with-the-media/))  
5. At CIA headquarters, Trump denies feud, lashed out at critics, boasted of his magazine covers, and **exaggerated the size of the crowd at his inauguration.** ( [Politico](http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-cia-langley-233971))  
6. **Trump’s real war isn’t with the media. It’s with facts.** He needs to delegitimize the media because he needs to delegitimize facts. ( [Vox](http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/21/14347952/trump-spicer-press-conference-crowd-size-inauguration))