Budget director use of "air quotes" puts "manipulation" in less "manipulative" light

Satire from Ted Block

AROUND THE BLOCK

FUTURE*

News with a Twist

Spicer: Budget director meant different kind of manipulation when he accused Obama of manipulating jobs data

Kellyanne Conway also opines on manipulation with microwave analogy

Monday, March 20, 2017 – One week after Mick Mulvaney, the Trump administration budget director accused former president Obama of manipulating jobs data, the Trump team is walking back the claim.

In his daily meeting with the press today, March 20, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said that Mulvaney was not accusing the former president and/or his team of framing data to make the unemployment rate "look smaller than it actually was.”

“First, there are several definitions of manipulating, not all exploitive as you main stream media people are using the word. These include handling, managing or using, especially with skill, a process or performance,” Spicer told the press corps, going on to say, “Mick was clearly speaking to that particular skill. Second, and more importantly, Mick used the word manipulating in quotes to get at it's broader, less manipulative meaning,” using "air quotes" when he said "manipulative."

When questioned by NBC’s Hallie Jackson about the use of quotes, particularly given that Mulvaney’s comments weren’t written or tweeted but were made during a TV interview, Spicer shot back, “As many of us do, he used ‘air quotes’ and it is possible you didn’t see him do that because, as many of us know, Mick, unlike me, is a very subtle ‘air quoter.’”

Before closing out the session however, Spicer did come back to the jobs issue one last time, reiterating the president’s exact quote from a week ago after the good jobs report came out: “They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now."

Right after Spicer’s press briefing, presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway felt compelled to also address the manipulation claim.

Appearing on Fox News Conway said, “What I can say is that there are many ways to manipulate things, not all of them bad. When you microwave food in a microwave oven, a potato for example, I believe, and I’m not a nuclear scientist, that you are actually manipulating the little thingees in the potato to make it hot. And that’s not bad. In fact, it’s particularly good with butter, sour cream and chives and just a pinch of salt.”

*Note: While this story is datelined March 20, it was written on March 14 and, as such, is Future News with a Twist.