The 2016 presidential election was not your normal election. America was divided over the candidates and people found something to hate about both of the final candidates. In the end, perhaps the most intense presidential candidate to ever run for office won the election. Donald Trump has denounced Muslims, Hispanics, women, disabled people, people of color, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and journalists; yet somehow he won the election. People all over the country are frustrated, confused, scared and sad and looking for someone to blame. Some are blaming the media, do not blame the media for reporting on what’s happening because that’s simply their job.
While covering the anti-Trump protests around the country, journalists were attacked for simply reporting. The journalists were not antagonizing the protestors, just simply doing their job. After an emotional presidential election, many people probably don’t want cameras near them and just want to be left alone, but the journalists reporting on the protests were not there to call protesters out, they were simply reporting on the protests.
Some may think it’s the media’s fault Trump won the election. Such as Hillary Clinton aides, who said that the media were too focused on Clinton’s emails and not enough on Trump’s business conflicts. Good journalists and media are supposed remain unbiased. A reliable good television news program or news outlet just gives you the straight facts and reports on what’s happening regardless of what they think of the candidate.
It’s clear that Trump and the media are not the best of friends. He’s called out The New York Times, Politico, USA Today, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Anderson Cooper, Megyn Kelly, Meet the Press, Ana Navarro and other well-known journalists and news organizations. In fact, just recently, on Nov 16, he went after the New York Times’s article describing the problems his transition process is facing.
Trump promised to open up the libel laws to make it easier to sue the media. Trump threatened to sue The New York Times after they published two stories of women accusing him of sexual assault, but no law suit has been filed yet. But quality and credible news sources aren’t just going to call out people for the fun of it, the biggest fear in journalism is being wrong and being sued.
Skeptics need to stop attacking the media, as well as Trump. Trump is going to want the media on his side as he’ll be president for the next four years. Yes, there are false news stories from unreliable sources that go around on Facebook that are now going to be banned. But when you read those stories, take a second to see if the source is a real news organization, if not you probably can’t believe what they write.
To all those questioning the media and journalists out there, including Mr. Trump, journalism will always be here.
I am proud to be a journalism student and future journalist. Journalists are the truth seekers whose jobs are to inform the public. The world is crazy so you may not like what we have to say, reliable news sources do make small mistakes from time to time, but if a quality news organization is reporting it, you should take it to be true.
Photo credit: Cover photo, 1, 2, 3.