USA: 'Free press essential to democracy' - Sean Spicer holds talk at UC Berkeley

W/S Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer arriving at podium, University of California, Berkeley
M/S Audience
SOT, Sean Spicer, former White House Press Secretary: "It's important to understand that that was the mentality of the press corps towards us. And, to some extent, it has grown even more. But when you are out there saying: 'Is this really what we are concentrating on?' You have to wonder what the priority of the media is. Now, I will say this before I take your questions. I want to make it very clear, I believe that a free and robust press is essential to our democracy."
C/U Audience *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Sean Spicer, former White House Press Secretary: "One of the things that I still find to this day gratifying is when folks that aren't in the front row come to me and say: 'Hey Sean, I just want to say thank you for democratising the press *inaudible*. Prior to you coming I rarely got to ask a question, and while we may have disagreed a lot, I appreciate the fact that you call on me.' So I thought that was always an important thing."
C/U Student with laptop
M/S Camera
W/S Evans Hall
SOT, Student: "He was Press Secretary so he was a very influential person, and I just wanted to hear what he had to say. I may not necessarily agree with him but he's an important person to see and he had a big influence in the White House, so yeah."
W/S Corridor *CUTAWAY*
SOT, Member of Berkeley College Republicans: "We decided to invite Sean Spicer obviously because he is the former White House press secretary. We think he offers a great view on a topic that we haven't really discussed here yet, as media bias. I mean, people in the Republican party and the right wing talk about it all the time that, you know, Donald Trump tweets fake news and we see outlets like CNN and New York Times literally putting out fake stories but we haven't had an event here yet to talk about it. So we thought who better to talk about it than Sean Spicer, who served as White House press secretary who, you know, dealt with these people on a constant day to day basis, to come and give his perspective on why he thinks that media bias is a danger to how we interpret news and how we live as people in this Republic."
C/U Sign
SCRIPT
Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer spoke at the University of California in Berkeley on Wednesday during an event sponsored by the Berkeley College Republicans.
More than 200 people reportedly attended the event, which covered media bias.
Spicer stressed that he believes that "a free and robust press is essential to our democracy."
Spicer served as the White House press secretary for six months between January and July 2017.