Who Do You Trust?

Gregory Petersen gp420718@ohio.edu

Walter Cronkite once said, "Journalism is what we need to make democracy work." These words are more important now than when he said them. The world could use Walter Cronkite right now.

Journalism has taken on a different look, but the principles need to remain the same. In fact, since it is so much easier to relay a message the responsibility of the journalist has increased. There is also a more unfiltered element, and we are seeing that in a more direct fashion now.

Generally speaking, if the President of the United States speaks, those words are supposed to be newsworthy, for better or worse. President Trump has made himself known for being incredibly unfiltered, and has offended many people. He has also set himself up to be an easy topic for ridicule. So how does the news report on an inane rambling without losing their own credibility?

This was the case even before he took office. The president's Tweets have been fodder for late night talk show jokes, and screaming talking heads. How does the press retain its integrity when it must report on these elements?

There is another important element here, and that is we are talking about things that can deal with national security and other serious matters. This can be dangerous if there is no vetting process.

It seems sad to say that credible journalists must report on Twitter rants, but so much of this goes back to the importance of the office. The words of the President of the United States must be taken seriously, even if they are widely seen as ridiculous. The press still has a job to do.

Like Bill Kovach and Tim Rosenstiel talk about in The Elements of Journalism, a task of reporting or presenting news is to make sense of a situation. This may seem like the set up to a punch line, but that is the reality of this current situation. Late night Twitter rants—often times using words like "fake news"—have become real news, and merit reporting.

There is also the need for the journalist to exercise his or her own personal conscience. A slant can be put on practically any story, and that slant can affect the way that story is perceived. From there that person's feelings can spread to more people, and have multiplying effects.

The bottom line here is that the journalist needs to report the news, not create it. This is something that needs to be done with integrity, even if it feels like the subject matter does not warrant this type of respect. It is interesting to think about how Walter Cronkite would have reported on President Trump's Twitter rants. While the topic could have seemed absurd to him, the reporting would still cut to the truth of the matter, and would be anything but fake news.