Media is getting a bad rap these days, and it’s largely due to the current administration’s attempt to delegitimize the press by calling it, “fake news” and “the enemy of the people.”
To a certain degree, President Trump is right. While he’s wrong about the media being fake news and the enemy of the people, his criticism of the media is not completely unfounded.
When cable news runs the television equivalent of clickbait (segments designed to catch viewers’ attention with sensational headlines) across the bottom of the screens, it makes it hard for audiences to take them seriously. The bias and agenda of some media cause some to believe all media is untrustworthy. Over sensationalized, overhyped and long drawn-out coverage of negative events, such as the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight 370, have given media a bad reputation for not doing their jobs correctly.
So this begs the questions, does the media do its job, and does it deserve the criticism of the current president?
Trump is critical of the press. Not because the press is bad at its job, but for the exact opposite reason. Story after story of Trump’s cabinet and senior staff doing ethically questionable and possibly illegal things have given a sour note to an already rocky presidency. The press has been right to catch Trump in the act of doing something a president really should not do.
When Kellyanne Conway told “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd that Sean Spicer gave “alternative facts” about the inauguration crowd size, the media rightfully scolded Conway and said ‘alternative facts’ are actually just lies. When Conway gave an interview with “Fox and Friends” about Ivanka Trump’s clothing line being pulled from shelves and saying “go buy Ivanka’s stuff,” the media again rightfully criticized Conway for using her position of influence to sell a product.
The media can do its job very well, but when it doesn’t, it’s fuel to the fire for the Trump Administration’s war against the press. When a photo of Conway sitting feet up on a couch with her phone, in a room full of college presidents from historically black colleges and universities, spread through the internet like wildfire, media picked it up and went after Conway. The media criticized her for being rude in a room full of university leaders and showing no signs of respect.
The thing is though, the very next frame shows Conway trying to take a picture from her phone, and that the position she was caught in on the photo was not really the position she was in for most of the meeting.
What was really a non-story became a giant sensation that was not necessary. Conway and the Trump Administration need to be called out for any improprieties, but this was not one of them.
“I think Trump is playing on everyone’s anger at the media, but he’s demonizing the media instead of just calling them out for not doing their job,” Colorado Mesa University student Skyler Frieling said.
“I think [Trump] is handling it wrong, fighting fire with fire. He’s just making more people angry, and he’s making media people angry and he’s making anti-media people angry. I don’t think that the media is evil and should be abolished, that’s the cornerstone of making informed decisions but it needs to also be in check, but not this way,” Frieling said in addition to previous comments.
Media should not be barred from the press room, and should not be facing the types of attacks that Trump and many Trump supporters and surrogates throw at the media. So then, the media should be doing its job and not make something out of nothing. It should keep the people informed so that they may make informed and intelligent decisions in the future. Because of America’s distrust of the press we run the risk of not being a free and well-informed nation.
