The Fake News Debate Gets Real

Anyone who’s in the business of gathering and delivering the news, print, broadcast or digital, knows that you get a lot of people who will criticize what you do.  

It’s been that way for a long time.  That’s because individuals, or companies or governments that are being reported on in news stories don’t like being reported on when something not favorable is being reported about them.

Let’s face it; no one likes to face criticism even when it’s true... 

For many decades, people in the news business know that depending on which side of the political fence a reader or listener or viewer is on, they will see some news stories as being biased or slanted. 

If it’s a story critical of a Republican president, lots of Republicans complain about the news.  If it’s a story critical of a Democratic president, lots of Democrats complain about the news.

And it’s nothing new for presidents to not be crazy about what the news media say about them.  It’s happened since George Washington became the first one who had to deal with newspaper reporters who wrote critical stories about him.

So with all that being the case, how will today’s editorials in more than 300 newspapers around the country that criticize our current president over the way he has criticized the news media play out.   

A coordinated nationwide editorial campaign like this is unprecedented.  A president who says what he says about the media in the way he says it is also unprecedented. 

But maybe it’s a time for an unprecedented conversation about what our founders wanted our free country to be about.

(See San Diego Union Tribune editorial.)

(Photo credit Getty Images)

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