RNC’s Spicer: MSM Worried ‘They Don’t Get to Set the Agenda’

RNC Chief Strategist and Communications Director Sean Spicer defended conservative media, arguing that many of conservative media’s critics in the mainstream media are worried that “they don’t get to set the agenda anymore” on Saturday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Smerconish.”

Spicer was asked about New York Times National Correspondent Jackie Calmes’ claim that conservative media has pushed the GOP to the right and hurt its ability to govern and whether he worries Fox News’ role in the first GOP debate will push candidates too far to the right. He answered, “I think that the problem is that for so long — that the left-wing mainstream media has taken people to the left, and only focused us on issues, that a lot of conservative activists and Republican voters haven’t cared about, that there’s sort of a shockwave throughout the mainstream media, when they recognize how the issues and the concerns that conservative media are bringing up that don’t go covered. You look at this recent Planned Parenthood scandal, it’s the conservative media that’s out there bringing that scandal to light, and to shed — to share the concerns that are coming out. If left up to the New York Times, and the rest of the mainstream media, it would get swept under the rug.”

Spicer added, “I think that there’s a little bit of concern in the mainstream media, when you look at the market share that a lot of these newspapers have, they’re losing. And I think that what happens is you see the growth of conservative media, that is — and I think it’s frankly, worrisome to a lot of people in the mainstream media when they realize that it’s a dying medium. And they get concerned that conservative media’s getting the attention, and the issues that they once covered, they don’t get to set the agenda anymore.”

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