This week, the Vermont Standard joins an effort initiated by the Boston Globe, which asked newspapers across the country to write editorials addressing President Donald Trump’s recent assertion that journalists are “the enemy of the people.” Hundreds of papers responded. The Standard is honored to partner with longtime journalist, friend and local resident Robert Hager on this effort.
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I am privileged to write, on behalf of our highly regarded Vermont Standard and in concert with hundreds of newspapers across the country, to defend the role of journalism in our society. Most emphatically, the media is not “the enemy of the people.”
In the early 1970s, when I was reporting during the height of the Cold War, I used to return, stunned, from trips covering the old, repressive Soviet Union. There I saw firsthand what life was like in a land with no free press. I never forgot. The thugs in the Kremlin could get away with anything—and did. Their people had no idea of what was transpiring at home or what life was like abroad.
In the U.S., where a free press has flourished, some politicians chafe under critical coverage and strike back. The most concerted attacks seem to come in waves. In the heat of the Nixon years, I lived through Vice President Spiro Agnew’s labeling us as “nattering nabobs of negativism.” Decades later, at a national political convention in 1992, Pat Buchanan and others lashed out at the press so virulently that some of us turned to humor, in our own defense. I bought a tee shirt, which I still have, emblazoned with a headline saying “It’s all my fault—Blame it on the media!”
Now, we’re being blamed again. Daily, it seems. In spades.
Nothing reverberates more loudly than the drumbeat use of the term “fake news.” To me, those words should be reserved for their literal meaning: news that is factually incorrect. By the way, that’s pretty rare in the mainstream media. Not unheard of, but rare. Where fake news is a problem, is in the myriad, offbeat, no name news sites on the Internet—and in blogs.
But now the provocative phrase is being tossed about much more broadly, and inaccurately, to describe any account with which someone disagrees. If one is offended, one brands it fake news, whether it’s factually reported straight news, or a legitimate investigative story, or a fair-game opinion piece. Doesn’t matter.
As annoying as such misuse of the term is, we believe news outlets should be temperate in responding. It’s enough to explain our position—our dedication to getting it right and our explanation of why watchdog reporting is vital to democracy. We journalists should keep our heads down and continue to do our jobs: reporting, investigating, and analyzing. If, on the other hand, we make a show of publically rebuking politicians who take issue, or putting them on the spot, we risk becoming part of the story ourselves. And that is not our job.
In the end, we must depend on the public. Consumers of news need to think about the source of the stories they are reading or watching. With a little thought, most can probably tell when something is really fake news or when it’s being falsely branded as such.
Be skeptical. Be careful. But please know that our society just can’t function without a robust, critical press corps. I’m proud of being a journalist. We take it on the chin, but democracy needs us!
Robert Hager is a former NBC Nightly News correspondent who worked as a television journalist for 45 years, including time as a war and politics correspondent, and won two Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow Award. He lives in Woodstock.