As a student journalist, I have been taught and trained to seek the truth and report it. Truth is supported by factual evidence, eyewitness accounts, asking questions and using history as a reference to tell the stories our communities need to hear.
President Donald Trump, however, has called journalists scum, liars and responsible for fake news. The career path I have chosen is now being dragged through the mud, making me question whether journalism is the right path for me.
Despite the longstanding rocky relationship between the news media and Trump dating back to his candidacy announcement in June 2015, I hoped the president version of Trump would forge a different relationship, one of mutual respect. But hope vanished after witnessing what unfolded on Jan. 11 at Trump Tower in New York, where the president-elect held his first press conference since his win last Nov. 8.
Attempting to ask a question, CNN’s Senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta was denied by President Trump. In the midst of his stonewalling, Trump said, “Your organization is terrible.” Moments later, Trump told Acosta he was “fake news”.
And so it began. The relationship between the White House and the media started with a haymaker to one the world’s largest news organizations.
The press is often referred to as the unofficial fourth branch of the government protected by the First Amendment. Journalists are obligated to serve as a watchdog and to inform the people of any dysfunction in government. This was summed up no better than by former President Thomas Jefferson stating, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.”
Since being sworn-in, Trump continues to deconstruct the news media in our nation including a tweet published on January 29, that says:
“The failing @nytimes has been wrong about me from the very beginning. Said I would lose the primaries, then the general election. FAKE NEWS!”
Through all the insults and name calling, we must be objective when reporting the president.
This is done by reporting and writing ethically. By upholding our journalistic integrity to inform the masses, we will remain a trustworthy source for truth.
If his first month in office is any indication, Trump will continue to call out poor reporting to discredit and dismantle the news media. He will rely on Twitter to spew hot garbage, including attacks on media and journalists, from his brain to his fingertips in 140 characters or less to his 24.9 million followers.
This attempt to intimidate and belittle our calling as journalists has done nothing more than fuel me to not only remain in this field of study but to seek truth, pierce through “alternative facts,” and inform my community of government dysfunction.
We must continue to tell the stories that need to be told.
If we were to stop, we would backslide as a democratic society.
As this administration continues to threaten of our legitimacy as journalists, the closer we come to a dangerous challenge to our First Amendment rights.
