ADVERTISEMENT

Politico, NY Times Reporters Spread False Story About Spicer's 'Candor'

Sean Spicer / Getty Images
Sean Spicer / Getty Images
September 5, 2017

Reporters on Twitter mocked former White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday, falsely claiming his PR agency scrubbed his website bio to avoid calling him truthful.

Worldwide Speakers Group announced in an emailed press release Tuesday that the organization had signed Spicer as a paid speaker.

"With the same wit and candor that made him one of the most recognizable White House Press Secretary’s in recent memory, Spicer offers audiences objective analysis on the strategies of both parties, the major trends and decisions making news, and specifically the impact this will have on the industries and citizens of the United States," the group wrote.

The reference to Spicer's "candor" riled reporters, who have long complained Spicer had a history of making spurious claims from the podium.

In the midst of this backlash, Politico White House reporter Annie Karni claimed the WSG website had been "scrubbed" of the language about Spicer's candor.

New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel repeated her claim.

Spicer soon called out both reporters on Twitter, saying it was completely untrue that the website bio had been changed. He said there were actually two versions of the bio, one that went out in the email and the other on the website.

Karni, in light of Spicer's information, deleted her tweet and admitted Spicer was right.

Vogel, however, doubled down. He continued to mock Spicer and insist he was wrong.

Eventually, Vogel too tweeted out a correction and deleted his tweet mocking Spicer, but left up the original, inaccurate tweet.

Funnily enough, the language about Spicer's "wit and candor" was in fact on his WSG page the entire time. You need only to click on the "Speech Topics" tab to read it.