Reuters editor defends photo of sparse National Mall during President Trump's inauguration

A Reuters editor defended his photographer’s disputed image of an underwhelming crowd to witness President Trump's inauguration, the same photo that enraged the new administration the following morning, the New York Daily News reported.

Jim Bourg, who assigned a photographer to scale the Washington Monument for a sky-high view of the swearing-in ceremony, slammed “inaccurate talk and allegations” he found circulating among his own Facebook friends.

“Only one news organization had a still photographer atop the Washington monument for the inauguration and I assigned him to be there,” Bourg wrote in a Facebook post Sunday night. “This photo by Reuters News Pictures staff photographer Lucas Jackson was taken at 12:01:18 p.m. on Friday and not much earlier as many people are trying to claim.

The stark image, when compared to the plentiful crowds former President Obama drew during his 2009 inauguration, drew the ire of White House spokesman Sean Spicer. The two photos were taken within a half hour of each other during their respective inaugurations.

The red-faced press secretary attempted to skewer journalists for accurately reporting on the number of people who attended the inauguration during a heated press briefing Saturday.

Spicer suggested there was no way to measure attendance.

“No one had numbers because the National Park Service, which controls the National Mall, does not put any out,” he said before contradicting himself.

He falsely claimed that his boss attracted “the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration.”