Media's Mission

"You're not supposed to be sycophants. You're supposed to be skeptics, and ask tough questions." -- President Barack Obama, speaking to reporters at his final press conference.

   President-elect Donald Trump doesn't trust the news media to cover the news the way he prefers.
   Unfair, dishonest, and failing are some of Trump's favorite terms when he inveighs against journalists, and he says he will continue using his Twitter account as his way of communicating directly with the public. This way, he does not take questions from reporters, and his answers will appear in brief, 140-character postings.
   Moreover, Trump demands deference from everyone, and attacks anyone who disagrees with or questions anything he says.
   News flash for the President-elect: Reporters can be and usually are courteous, but expecting them to be sycophants who bend all stories to the Trump slant is a failure to grasp the function of a free and independent press.
   To demand otherwise is tantamount to abolishing the First Amendment.
   At his final press conference, Obama admitted that he did not always like the questions put to him by journalists, but he acknowledged that this is the way the system works.
   Trump now must accept that this is the way the system works, whether he likes it or not.
   Reporters ask tough questions because they need to be asked, and they ask them on behalf of the public. Good reporters operate on the premise that their opinions are not relevant to what they do, and they don't let their opinions influence their questions.
   In the real world, however, sometimes the questions asked on behalf of the public do indeed match a reporter's view, and that view may well contrast with that of a President.
   Many citizens also disagree with what a President says, does and proposes. All the more reason, then, that questions disagreeable to a President be put to him.
   To demand that reporters "get with the program and be part of the team" is to misunderstand the role of journalists. They are not and should not be part of a political team. They are, however, part of the American team, and it is their job to be skeptical and question everything a politician -- including a President -- says and does.