Dear Leader readers, you need us – journalists – and we need you, like neither of us ever have before.
At the center of our shared need is the concept of truth. These days, it just seems so irrelevant to so many.
The latest assault comes from – guess who? – President Donald Trump and his “Highly Anticipated 2017 Fake News Awards,” announced Jan. 17.
Trump labeled as “fake” an opinion piece that predicted his election would trigger a stock market crash (thankfully, the writer called it wrong) and nine mainstream media stories that contained errors, followed up by corrections, and in some cases, discipline for the offending reporters.
The 11th award, apparently given to the media at large, was an unproven assertion: “Russian collusion is perhaps the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people. THERE IS NO COLLUSION!”
Trump has bellyached incessantly over the last year about “fake news” and that’s all he’s got? Input from a working journalist (that would be me):
■ A clearly labeled “op-ed” piece, by definition, is opinion and not news; it cannot be “fake.”
■ When a story is wrong and the agency involved admits it, corrects it and censures the errant reporters, it is ethical journalism, not “fake” journalism.
Most reporters strive to get it right; sometimes they don’t. A story moves into “fake” territory when the press discovers a story is incorrect and refuses to clear it up.
Like every news organization, the Leader makes its share of mistakes and is scrupulous about correcting errors, always putting corrections or clarifications on pages 2 or 3. Does the fact that we occasionally make mistakes and admit them serve to discredit the thousands of facts we get right? It does not.
■ Finally, the jury is out, literally, on the Trump administration’s possible collusion with Russia during and after the 2016 election. Even if it turns out that Trump’s assertion is correct, which I think is entirely possible, the reporters who have followed day-by-day developments in the story will have just been doing their jobs, which is to examine and report on government.
So, Trump’s list is phony, like so much of what he said and tweeted in his first year in office, often forcing his Republican staff and colleagues into ridiculous contortions to cover his misstatements. (The Washington Post reports there have been at least 2,000, so far.)
Nothing was more laughable than the fallout after the disastrous Jan. 11 immigration meeting. Trump invited senators Richard Durbin and Lindsey Graham to come to the White House to talk about an already discussed and supposedly promising deal on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, only to ambush them with a quickly assembled group of detractors.
Surprising, then, that “someone” leaked Trump’s profane comments, which his cohorts couldn’t recall, didn’t hear or heard differently from other people with ears.
A whole roomful of people need memory-enhancing medication, hearing aids or truth serum. Door 3, please.
This disregard for honesty is so cynical and so dangerous. It is the hallmark of the Trump presidency.
That being said, I give credence to some of what Trump attests. The mainstream media is biased against him and conservative beliefs, overall. It didn’t start with Trump and has played a significant role in why he has been able to so effectively villainize the press.
We have seen the raised eyebrow, the smirk, the supposedly objective reporting that was, in fact, laced with not-so-subtle opinion.
Still, when facts become unashamedly “alternative,” and Trump calls my profession “the enemy of the American people,” how could there not be a backlash from the people who are writing the words and speaking to the camera?
Trump’s most demonizing comments were specifically aimed at the mainstream media, but I felt the sting, too, having done this job to the best of my ability, with a sincere desire to serve my community since … (OK, I’d rather not count up the years, but it’s been a long time).
In one of my first columns as Leader editor, I made the case that Trump is a childish leader who ought to grow up. A longtime reader called to tell me he was canceling delivery of the paper.
He said he was purely sick of the media attacking Trump at every turn, and that the more criticism he heard, the more emphatic his support would be.
My caller turned out to be an open-minded guy and he ended up keeping the paper. He said he would keep an eye on my columns and give me a chance.
Did this help convince him?
Say you’re a plumber, I told him. Say the president of the United States tells the world you are intentionally lousy at your job and, what’s more, the enemy of the American people. Do you think you might fight back?
He allowed that he might, if indeed, he were the plumber.
The press should try harder to actually be objective rather than pretend to be objective, and Trump should develop some respect for the First Amendment and start trying to uphold it rather than smash it down.
A free press is vital to our continued existence as a free country. Numerous countries throughout history have allowed their press to fall and then paid horrendous consequences. Right now, reporters in places like Turkey, Russia and Mexico take their lives in their hands every time they report the facts.
The press is charged with searching for and reporting the truth. At all levels, I believe that is what journalists are trying to do.
It would be easier to accomplish if our leaders could recognize what the truth is.
Here’s some guidance: Truth is the thing that is not a lie.
