Two Former Press Secretaries Have Some Advice For Sean Spicer

Sean Spicer , the ghosts of press secretaries past would like to have a word with you.

Ari Fleischer, who served in the post under President George W. Bush, and Mike McCurry, who had it under President Bill Clinton, on Wednesday renewed a call for the Trump administration to work more effectively with the media.

The pair made that case in a column they co-authored for the Columbia Journalism Review in early January, before Trump even took office. Given Spicers new habit of holding off-camera press briefings, however, the advice seemed not to be heeded so the duo drew attention to it again today on Twitter.

Despite the rancor that exists today between the media and Trump, the two wrote in January , we believe there are ways to make their relationship beneficial to the public they both serve.

Among other recommendations, the two ex-press secretaries suggested press briefings be filmed under embargo and released later in the day, instead of treating them as a live television event.

We support no live TV coverage of WH briefing. Embargo it & let it be used, but not as live TV. Better for the public, the WH & the press.

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We support no live TV coverage of WH briefing. Embargo it & let it be used, but not as live TV. Better for the public, the WH & the press.
Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) June 28, 2017

They argued that doing so would help tone down whats become a rowdy confrontation full of gotcha moments, and instead refocus the briefings on facts and substance. The two also noted that a return to live coverage would be easy in the event of a major compelling incident.

The January column presciently predicted the difficulty of running the press shop for a boss who likes to send his own messages on the internet. But rather than weaken the press secretarys impact, they argued, that makes the office all the more important:

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