When he was still merely a Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump popularized the term “fake news” – a term he still uses today, even as President of the United States, to characterize news sources that put out stories that he feels are a bad reflection on him and his administration.
Since he first launched his 2016 presidential bid, we’ve seen Trump, regardless of how factual a story on him may be, criticize the media harshly for reporting on his vices.

“He calls anything fake media that do their best to report unbiasedly. He only likes the media that report on his achievements,” said an SJCC student who wishes to remain anonymous.

What President Trump and many other politicians fail to understand is that it is the media’s job to serve as a “watchdog” to the public and hold government officials accountable for their actions or lack thereof.

It is crucial to the survival of our country’s democracy that the journalists in this country continue to serve the public as a “watchdog” and cover both the virtues and vices alike that many of our government officials possess.

Without honest, hard-working journalists, our politicians would be held accountable much less often, and we would know much less as a society than we do today.

Without a free press, do the many scandals that rocked former President Warren G. Harding come to light? Does Richard Nixon resign? Is Bill Clinton impeached? These are all examples we must take into consideration the next time any politician unjustly blasts reporters in this country for simply doing their job.

Saying that it is important to the survival of our country to maintain a free press is a vast understatement. However, reporters in this country should not be exempt from being held accountable.

The importance of having an unbiased news outlet that only has an agenda of discovering and sharing the truth cannot be stated enough.

SJCC student Brian Rapp shared the importance of integrity in the media with The Times, “It is very crucial to society to have our news sources be unbiased because a biased news source creates propaganda and propaganda doesn’t help anyone except the person who created it,” Rapp said.

All in all, there is a countless amount of examples to give that support the importance of media to society. The next time Donald Trump refers to the media as “the enemy of the people,” remember journalism’s long track record of holding the people in power accountable. That refutes President Trump’s numerous attacks on reporters nationwide.