Kathrine Nero
Since inauguration day, President Trump has issued numerous executive orders and has also restricted or limited access to certain media outlets.
The relationship between the Executive Branch and the media has been a strained one for years, as both media outlets and political parties tend to veer away from the middle and lean more toward extremes.
The media have long been a favorite punching bag of politicians. It’s an easy group to blame, and in some cases, a tough one to defend. In some circumstances, media outlets say they are sharing verifiable facts, while politicians call them “fake news.” Politicians say media members are twisting their words, conflating thoughts to create said “fake news.”
Who’s right and who’s wrong is certainly an issue. But the American people’s access to the very facts that allow us to figure all that out is becoming an even bigger one.
Journalism was created as the “Fourth Estate,” the fourth element in the three branched government our founding fathers worked so hard to create. It was their belief that journalists would hold our three branches of government accountable. They would be the eyes, the ears and the conscience of the American people. But when those eyes are blindfolded and those ears are covered, how can they perform their jobs?
The US Constitution enshrines freedom of the press in the First Amendment, recognizing that an informed public is key to a functioning democracy. And that’s a good thing.
Criticism of sitting Presidents by media is nothing new. Conservative media outlets accused President Biden of limiting questions from right-leaning outlets. Since his election, President Trump has taken this one step further: in his Executive Order titled, “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship,” the President takes aim at fact checking websites and outlets, saying checking for verifiable facts infringes upon free speech.
The President has blocked the Associated Press from attending an oval office event because it refuses to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, as he outlined in a Jan. 20 Executive Order. He has added new media outlets to the White House Press Corps, a positive move considering the shifting nature of the industry. But the concern is the ripple effect of who will be shown the door to make room for new media. The Department of Defense “rotated out” longtime media outlets New York Times, NPR and Politico in favor of more Trump-positive outlets One America News Network, the New York Post, Breitbart News and HuffPost. It’s important to note that all these outlets are still able to cover the government, but won’t have a dedicated office within the Pentagon to do so.
How this all trickles down is this: it will be tougher for journalists to do their job, which means it’s tougher for you to get factual information. The Trump administration also bypasses the media in many cases, going directly to social media channels to announce initiatives, opinion, programs and more. Certainly allowable, but is it best practice?
This is a case of an imperfect aggressor and an imperfect victim. The President is well within his rights to shake up the press corps: to decide who gets access, and how much. And we are all justified to be offended by improper reporting and unfair – and sometimes lazy – media practices. But journalists have the right to show the American people what is happening in the White House – the people’s house.
America was built on the fundamentals of transparency, accountability, and an informed public. Picking and choosing media outlets based on ideological alignment does us all a disservice and weakens our democracy and our ability to make informed decisions.
We don’t have to like what the media says about what happens in the White House. We don’t have to like the person in the White House. But we have to trust that the information coming out of the relationship between the two is truthful. Our democracy depends on it.
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