By Gonzalo Enriquez, Staff writer
OPINION
On Jan. 11, President Donald Trump attacked CNN by refusing to take a question from its reporter, Jim Acosta. The president uttered words like ‘Your organization is terrible’ and ‘No, I’m not going to give you a question. You are fake news,’ according to The Guardian.
As a journalist myself, I find this absurd.
Journalist are supposed to question authority and hold people accountable, that was one of the first things I was taught. It’s wrong that the president is going after the press for asking questions, questions that he won’t even answer. He’s also wrong to favor certain media outlets — only those who write positive stories about him. It’s almost impossible to say that journalism isn’t under attack by the president. In one press conference, President Trump used the term ‘fake news’ 15 times.
For the record, fake news is stories that are hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation published purporting to be real news sometimes for political gain, ratings, or money.
The president didn’t stop there. On Feb, 17 he tweeted ‘The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!’
A couple days later on Feb. 24, the White House held a press conference and blocked CNN, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Politico, the BBC, The Guardian, and a few others. This action from the Trump administration raised the eyebrows of many, especially First Amendment watchdogs.
The press is essential to a democracy. Its strength rests in the First Amendment. To say that the press is the enemy of the people is completely fallacious. Journalism works just as well as the checks and balances because it asks the who, what, when, where, and why, and holds elected officials accountable for their actions. It keeps the public informed and helps bring people together. The press is the voice of the voiceless, for those who are too afraid to speak up. Journalist have even lost their own lives or have put their own life at risk for reporting in places where they don’t believe freedom of the press matters.
James Foley was an American journalist from Wisconsin who lost his life while reporting in Syria. On Aug. 19, 2014, his mom, Diane Foley, posted on the Free James Foley Facebook page ‘We have never been prouder of our son Jim. He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people.’ It’s hard knowing that people have lost their own life to journalism simply due to the fact that in some parts of the world, people have no rights. Knowing that people have lost their lives makes me even more driven and more passionate to keep reporting and initiating a conversation we all should have.
Journalism does more than just inform the public. It brings that human connection to a lot of difficult issues that maybe we are too afraid to talk about. News stories can be relatable if we choose them to be. How relatable depends on you, the reader. It’s what you decide to do with the information provided and how you choose to react to the news because we do like hearing your comments. We are open to the conversation with all our readers.
Journalists are equivalent to superheroes in my opinion. Each have super powers that can be used for good or evil. On Aug 8, 1974 Republican President Richard Nixon was forced to resign after months of reporting and government investigations that ultimately linked him to abuses of power including the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Thanks to the investigative reporting done by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Watergate scandal. it was cool to be a journalist for a brief moment.
The President is out of line to be addressing the media the way he does. It’s not really about who he is, more importantly that he’s a president. Being the president is one of the greatest honors and he should know how to act respectfully.
Regardless of what President Trump thinks of journalists and how he treats them, he’s doing something remarkable. He’s bringing back a renaissance in journalism. He’s making room for better journalism, not just truthful journalism. Because the real reason he hates journalist is because he’s scared of them. He knows that when you control the media, you control power.
I’m a journalist because I think it’s important to ask the really difficult questions no one else will ask. I believe everyone does have a right to know what is going on in their government. Citizens of a country should be able to hear everyone’s viewpoint, not just one.