CNN White House Press Briefing Sketch

About

CNN White House Press Briefing Sketch refers to a number of hand-drawn illustrations depicting White House Press Briefings that cameras were barred from. Online, the sketches became a popular source of image macros and parody.

Origin

In June 2017, the White House began banning cameras from certain White House press briefings.^[1] The unconventional rule has been met with criticism, especially after White House chief strategist responded to questions about the lack of cameras with a text message reading, "Sean got fatter."

On June 23rd, CNN sent sketch artist Bill Hennessy, who has sketched Supreme Court proceedings in the past, to the press briefing. That day, @CNN^[3] posted one of Hennessy's sketches to Instagram with the caption, "The White House has banned cameras at some of its press briefings – so we sent courtroom sketch artist Bill Hennessy to capture the scene instead." The post (shown below) received more than 10,700 likes in three days.

Spread

Later that day, CNN posted several sketches from the press briefing on Twitter.^[4] In a tweet captioned "The White House has been prohibiting cameras at some press briefings, so we sent a sketch artist," CNN tweeted four images from the briefing. The post received more than 5,000 retweets and 12,000 likes in three days.

CNN correspondents Jim Acosta^[9] and Brian Stetler^[8] also shared the sketch on Twitter (shown below, left and right, respectively). Acosta received more than 3,700 retweets and 11,000 likes for his tweet, which he captioned "So sketchy to not have cameras at WH briefing. So CNN sent sketch artist to capture the moment." Stetler garnered more than 2,300 retweets and 4,500 likes within three days.

Shortly after the sketches hit Twitter, people began posting captions above the pictures. Twitter user @darth posted two of the most popular. First, they posted a sketch with Spicer replaced with a bush, alluding to the time reporters found him hiding in the bushes and the caption "was not a supporter of the idea of a courtroom sketch artist in the white house briefing room but this is pretty good tbh." The tweet (shown below, left) received more than 1,400 retweets and 4,500 likes. @darth followed this tweet with another photoshop that replaced Spicer with the This Is Fine dog and the caption "'how was the press conference' 'fine.'" The tweet received more than 2,400 retweets and 7,500 likes.^[10]

Throughout the day, people continued to post pictures and parodies of the press briefing sketches (examples below).

Several news outlets covered CNN's sketches, including The New York Post,^[5] The Washington Post,^[6] Uproxx^[7] and more.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References