Sarah Sanders mastered these 5 rhetorical tricks to destroy the White House press briefing
CODY FENWICK, ALTERNET
30 JAN 2019 AT 23:40 ET
This week, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders held her first briefing with reporters of the new year. These sessions were once called daily briefings, but at this point, theyre not even being held weekly. During her tenure as press secretary, the briefings have become shorter and increasingly rare, leaving the media with fewer formal venues to get direct answers about President Donald Trumps actions and priorities.
But despite this major disruption in White House press relations, the backlash to the diminished role for briefings has been muffled. While some have voiced their objections to the declining briefings, the issue hasnt turned into a major crusade, even when they have been comfortable strongly denouncing the administrations other norm-breaking behaviors.
The reason, it seems, is pretty obvious: Sanders has succeeded in making the press briefings almost entirely useless. Her answers are evasive, false, or meaningless, and they do nothing to keep reporters or the country more informed. Its often clear that she doesnt actually have the authority to speak on behalf of the president on central issues, so no one takes her claims all that seriously as it is. She has become masterful at refusing to answer questions, avoiding many of the humiliating pitfalls her predecessor Sean Spicer frequently stumbled into, while rarely committing the White House to any firm position for which it might be held accountable. With such an adept propagandist in charge of press briefings, the fact that they are so rare is hard to complain about; its like the old joke about abysmal cafeteria meals: The food is disgusting, and the portions are too small!
Here are five of Sanders rhetorical strategies to avoid any challenging questions:
1. Plead ignorance
One of Sanders go-to response for tough questions often about the latest outrage the president has engaged in or scandal that has been uncovered is simply to declare, I have nothing for you on that. As long as she has no answer, she cant be held accountable for anything. And while reporters could keep pressing to try and make a point, there are always other questions and topics that need to be covered in a day, so they move on.
More:
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/sarah-sanders-mastered-5-rhetorical-tricks-destroy-white-house-press-briefing/?utm_source=push_notifications
czarjak
(11,278 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)It's how we got to this sorry state of affairs.
czarjak
(11,278 posts)If you can't tame it, you can't master it.