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Chuck Todd interviews Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway about the motive behind litigating inaugural crowd size.

By Jon Wright Fay
02/20/2017 • 05:37 AM EST

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: Click or tap on any techniquesee definition - the definition will be displayed here.
 that appears in bold to show its definition.
: mirroring languagesee definition - just repeating words from a question in your response, to make it sound like you're answering the question, without answering the question.
: Conway uses Todd's question about what Trump did "yesterday" to point out other things Trump did "yesterday" (which has no relation to Todd's question).
: minimizationsee definition - characterizing something that you don't want to address as trivial or insignificant, in order to shift the focus away from it and onto "more important" things.
: Conway trivializes the Administration's false claim on crowd size in light of other more "quantifiable points of interest."
: red herringsee definition - throwing an irrelevant fact into an argument to divert attention from the real issue at hand.
: Conway brings up the TV viewership for the inauguration, which has no relation to the question about the claim of having the largest inaugural crowd size ever.
: whataboutismsee definition - discrediting a criticism by accusing hypocrisy, in order to shift the focus away from oneself and onto others.
: Conway shifts the focus from Spicer's false claim about crowd size to a Time magazine reporter's erroneous reporting (which he issued a correction for 2 minutes after reporting).[2]
: euphemismsee definition - replacing accurate language that may be offensive with language that is more palatable, to instill a positive association.
: The term "alternative facts" to describe false claims, misleading claims, and half truths.
: mirroring languagesee definition - just repeating words from a question in your response, to make it sound like you're answering the question, without answering the question.
: Conway repeats the word "fact" to change the subject from provable falsehoods and launch into a series of populist talking points.
: mirroring languagesee definition - just repeating words from a question in your response, to make it sound like you're answering the question, without answering the question.
: Conway now repeats the word "about" to again change the subject away from the question.
: straw mansee definition - misrepresenting an opponent's position or argument to make it easier to attack, usually by exaggerating, distorting, or just completely fabricating it.
: While Todd is arguing the inaugural crowd size wasn't the largest ever, he's not claiming exact crowd size can be calculated.
: red herringsee definition - throwing an irrelevant fact into an argument to divert attention from the real issue at hand.
: Conway brings up the size of Trump rallies, which has no relation to the question about the claim of having the largest inaugural crowd size ever.
: mirroring languagesee definition - just repeating words from a question in your response, to make it sound like you're answering the question, without answering the question.
: Todd questions why Trump would talk about crowd size at "the CIA" and Conway deflects to other things he said at the CIA.
: mirroring languagesee definition - just repeating words from a question in your response, to make it sound like you're answering the question, without answering the question.
: Conway answers Todd's "was it right" with "what's not right," to easily change the subject to the Steele dossier.
: attacking the ratingssee definition - attacking a news organization's ratings, circulation, or popularity, while not refuting the substance of its criticism.
: straw mansee definition - misrepresenting an opponent's position or argument to make it easier to attack, usually by exaggerating, distorting, or just completely fabricating it.
: While Todd did call Spicer's litigation of crowd size ridiculous, he never called anyone in the Trump campaign ridiculous.
: false equivalencysee definition - implying that two things are essentially the same, when they only have anecdotal similarities.
: Between legitimate errors in reporting and deliberate manufactured disinformation.[2]

Total number of techniques detected over the 13:52 runtime of this video clip:

PROPAGANDA TECHNIQUES

6 OCCURRENCES

euphemism:  
false equivalency:  
minimization:  
red herring:    
whataboutism:  

FALSEHOODS & DISTORTIONS

2 OCCURRENCES

straw man:    

SUMMARY

8 OCCURRENCES

Conway: 100%

References
1. "Donald Trump had biggest inaugural crowd ever? Metrics don't show it". Politifact. Published: January 21, 2017.

2. "A Note to Our Readers". Time. Published: January 24, 2017.