One man has defined my whole freshman year of college: President Donald Trump, and I am not thrilled about it at all.
As a political science major I’m forced to listen to my professors discuss all his new policies and all the executives orders and as a journalism minor, even in the university setting, am suffering from the stigma he brought into the world about journalists.
Unlike President Obama, Trump does not give journalists any credit at all and believes in “fake news” and “alternative facts.”
My republican friends began to buy into this notion of “fake news” and started saying things like why do we need the media when Trump just tweets everything?
This is the biggest issue I have with the Trump administration so far. Every time he sends out a Tweet, I really want to go to the White House and throw his phone in the trashcan.
As journalists, we are considered the fourth estate, which means we are in charge of checking all the other branches. Trump should not be immune to this check of power.
If the public is getting their information straight from the president, how do they know everything is fact checked like they do at respectable news outlets? Trumps’s track record with being honest isn’t fantastic either so I have no idea how the public believes him.
In this day and age, the media should be one of the few places we feel sure that the information we are receiving is 100 percent accurate. Yes, I know sometimes news outlets make mistakes; they’re human just like you. But, if Trump and his administration would cooperate, then maybe the media could have the most accurate and up to date information all the time.
Going straight from the source to get information from 150 character Tweets is not the way to go. Yes, to some people it may seem like it would be more accurate. No third party telling you what someone in charge could just Tweet, but we need that check on his power.
I’m not going to lie. As much as I try to ignore all this, it is affecting my everyday life. Whenever I tell someone I want to be a journalist, I get one of two reactions. One: “Ew fake news, you’re a part of the problem.” Two: “That’s terrible timing right now, good luck.” So I’m either the villain or the victim of the Trump administration.
When I leave college, he will be leaving office too. Unless we deal with this for another 4 years which I really hope Americans learned their lesson after 4 years of this. That means I’ll be entering the journalism worlds when he’s fresh out of office.
All the stigmas will follow when he leaves office and I jut hope a new president by then will create a country where journalists aren’t being constantly attacked.
