White House slams ‘shameful’ media reports downplaying inauguration crowds

“This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period,” Spicer said, highlighting the millions of people who watched the inauguration on television and online in addition to those who viewed it from the National Mall. “These attempts to lessen the enthusiasm of the inauguration are shameful and wrong.”

Spicer noted the use of “floor coverings” to protect the grass on the National Mall for the first time had created white spaces that magnified small gaps in the crowd. And he said increased security measures had prevented thousands of revelers from accessing certain viewing sections.

Spicer’s comments came hours after Trump himself criticized media coverage of his inauguration and what he perceived to be an effort to minimize the support he received.

During a speech at CIA headquarters, Trump rekindled his “war with the media” and suggested some outlets had falsely portrayed his relationship with the intelligence community.

Spicer acknowledged the widespread discussion in journalism circles about the importance of holding the Trump administration accountable amid uncertainty about whether media norms will be observed in the new White House.

But Spicer said that vigilance would flow both ways in Trump’s White House.

“We’re going to hold the press accountable as well,” Spicer said.

Spicer also scolded a White House pool reporter, Time’s Zeke Miller, for incorrectly reporting that the Martin Luther King bust was removed from the Oval Office after President Trump moved in.

Miller apologized for the error in his reporting not long after he was informed of his mistake.

Many reporters did indeed focus on the perceived drop in attendance between Trump’s inauguration and former President Obama’s inauguration eight years earlier. An estimated 1.8 million people attended Obama’s first swearing-in ceremony in 2009.

Several outlets ran stories that included side-by-side pictures of the two inaugurations, with photographs of Trump’s crowds appearing noticeably thinner than Obama’s crowds.

What’s more, the overwhelming turnout for the Women’s March, a national movement protesting some of the policies Trump has proposed, drew instant comparisons to the turnout for Trump’s inauguration.

Although Spicer noted that “no one had numbers” of attendees at Trump’s swearing-in ceremony, some observers had concluded that more people participated in the Women’s March than the inauguration.

Spicer focused on the number of riders who accessed the D.C. metro system on Friday, arguing the 420,000 people who rode the train surpassed the 317,000 people who rode the metro on the day of Obama’s 2013 inauguration.

However, in Jan. 2013, the Washington Post reported that 797,787 people rode the metro on the day of Obama’s inauguration.