Headlines across the globe signal the exit of a White House press secretary, but it’s hard to understand why. Sean Spicer was left to play the buffoon by his commander-in-chief. He swiftly became a bad joke, one confirmed when yet another reshuffle plonked a banker without PR experience in place as his head of communications. Communication, it may be gently added, is not this US administration’s strongest suit.
But does any of this really amount to much, apart from TV satirists doomed to search for another target? The plain fact about Donald Trump’s presidency from day one is that he is the only communicator who counts. His tweets, his ad libs, his body language send the messages that really matter; and there’s no sign of that changing. Sean Spicer only seemed important because journalists like to think that the ritual of press briefings make them important. Now that briefing operation is more disembodied than ever, an irrelevance just pottering on.
• Once upon a time, general elections were a big sales bonus for Fleet Street. No longer. Both the daily and Sunday June market were 0.3% down on May. The Guardian, up 3.8%, was top of the daily league, and the Observer, up 8.6%, was the clearest Sunday winner while Tory-backing competitors stayed stagnant or slipped back. Not much of a market, it appears, for the drum beaters of pending Tory triumph. Which seems just as well, in the circumstances.
