The other night, I watched a video of convicted felon, career con man and current President-elect, Donald J. Trump refer to the press, once again, as “the enemy of the people.” I was sitting in The Oracle office with my friend, and I couldn’t stop laughing. My friend was shocked by my response. We are both aiming to be journalists after graduation, and they thought I should be more alarmed by Trump’s rhetoric. I was alarmed, but, from a certain perspective, I agreed with Trump.
In 2016, Trump said he wanted to “open up the libel laws.” If he did so, it would have made it easier for journalists to get sued for libel, otherwise known as written defamation. Libel suits are already the most common legal challenge journalists face, as most don’t have the funds or time to fight these long and costly court cases. Rather than fight the case, the journalists take down and cease to publish the material. Censorship is often the goal of libel lawsuits. Because of the harsh consequences, these suits can prevent journalists from even attempting to write about powerful people or controversial topics, as they will be sued out of the profession before any difference can be made. Trump’s legal team has also taken aim at the important Supreme Court case relating to freedom of the press, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, a case which defined what is needed to prove a libel claim and protects a reporter’s right to be wrong.
I don’t agree with these potential measures Trump will likely take during his presidency. If these measures succeed, they will surely make the journalistic landscape in the U.S. more contentious. But I can see why, from Trump’s perspective, journalists are seen as the enemy of the people. Powerful people like Trump have always had an issue with the media, and fundamentally, if you are doing your job right as a political journalist, those powerful people are probably justified in feeling that way.
In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon papers to the press, shifting perceptions of the Vietnam War and starting a chain of events that led to the Watergate Scandal. I am sure Richard Nixon saw Ellsberg and the journalism institutions that Nixon took to court as enemies of the people.
Following this trend, I am sure that George Bush Jr. saw reporters like John Walcott, the news editor for the Knight Ridder, a media company that covered Washington D.C., as an enemy of the people when Walcott and his team worked tirelessly between 2001 and 2004 to expose the lies being spread by the Bush administration to garner public support for the Iraq War.
I also believe that college institutions across the nation viewed the student journalists who risked arrest, expulsion and assault to document the student encampments in support of Gaza as enemies of their institutions.
To people in power, journalists should seem like a pest or a nuisance. Journalists inform the public of the misuse of power by those who have it. To a person like Trump, who spreads lies and misinformation with nearly every public appearance, the press must seem like a formidable enemy, as they should. “A free press means our government answers the people. An independent news media uses its watchdog role to investigate and report on government overreach and wrongdoing and hold those in power accountable for their actions,” states the Freedom Forum, an organization dedicated to fostering First Amendment awareness.
The goal of the political journalist should never be to appease the volatile emotions of a public figure, especially when that public figure has stated publicly his desire to limit the freedom of the press. Rather, the duty of the journalist is to the people of the journalist’s nation. According to the Society of Professional Journalists, “the highest and primary obligation of ethical journalism is to serve the public.” The dedication to that service often comes at the expense of the opinion of public officials, corporations and political figureheads, and that’s okay. A political journalist must be okay with badgering the powerful in all sectors of society if that investigation will serve the public good, just as they would investigate any other story, and even at the cost of being labeled an enemy of the people.
When covering U.S. involvement in Iraq, Walcott allegedly stated, “‘We don’t write for people who send other people’s kids to war. We write for people whose kids get sent to war,” and that is a sentiment I fully agree with.
Department of Media and Journalism Professor Felicia Hodges repeatedly states in class that journalists operate as the “fourth branch of government,” the final check and balance in our government system. It is the role of the press to poke and prod and fact-check our officials, even at risk of public scrutiny and harassment, even from the president of the United States. Without the press, the government can operate and expand unchecked, without anyone to hold them accountable. I believe that it is this accountability that con men like Trump fear the most.
Removing the press’ freedom to check the government and punishing the press when they make mistakes allows for the unhindered expansion of government power and propaganda, something conservatives, like Trump, should reject on political principle. Yet, you will find a large portion of the modern conservative movement speaking on the abuses of the media whenever the media does not side with them.
This is not to say that poor and biased journalism does not exist in this country. That journalism should be called out and condemned and a higher standard should be aimed for. Certainly, there exist political journalists and commentators who manipulate information for the sake of their audiences, but this flaw does not follow a partisan line and is not exclusive to coverage of Trump.
I see journalism as public service, and, like all public services, it is and should be a thankless job. The hours are long, the pay is poor, the industry is failing and the president has stated that he wants journalists imprisoned, and, in some cases, sexually assaulted. I see this contention as just something that comes with the territory of the profession. In my mind, at least Trump is being open about his motives towards the press. A rocky relationship should exist between public officials and the press. As journalists, our duty is to the people, not to an institution or political figure, and ethical journalism should always put that duty above any political motive or vendetta. Trump equates poor journalism and optics he doesn’t like to fake news, when, in reality, it is simply the struggles that come with a free and fair press.
The journalism industry is only getting smaller, and each year more journalists leave the profession for modes of employment that are more sustainable. Yet, for the few dedicated journalists that remain and the students who prepare to enter the industry during Trump’s second term, I hope they wear the label of “enemy of the people” with immense pride and as a symbol of their dedication to the public good.