Yes, I am a journalist
/There's been a lot of talk lately, well, pretty much since the beginning of 2016, about the press. President Trump has given our group of people the nickname "enemy of the American people" and questions about what we have aired/covered have been quite numerous since the start of this last year's presidential election season.
Some complained that we gave too much attention to Trump. Others claimed the same thing about Clinton.
Matter of the fact is: we cover it all, or at least we put our best foot forward as journalists to attempt to cover it all. We care about the community, and we put in a lot of overtime, and usually unpaid, hours to try to get it all done.
But here's the deal: newsrooms are shrinking by the day, almost practically by the minute. Papers simply do not have the resources to send a reporter out to every single event, protest, rally, breaking news occurrences and human interest stories.
And no, I'm not talking about CNN or Fox with their two-minute breaking news updates. Though they do fall within the same lines. Journalism nowadays has become an rapid-fire intake of information and journalists and producers alike try to get that information out as quickly and in as easy to understand of a way as possible.
But we're not superheros. As much as we'd like to think that Clark Kent uses our profession as a noble disguise, some things are definitely impossible. And being in multiple places at once is one of those things.
Journalists and editors are now tasked with having to decide what to cover. Since Trump has a rather extensive track record of changing his view and, as much as a lot of people I know would hate to admit, keeps things interesting (or at least keeps us all on our toes), he generally gets the coverage.
The job of the American press isn't really to cover what people want to see, thought sometimes it pleasantly works out that way. It is their job to ensure that public officials are being held accountable, and let's face it, Trump needs an army to make sure of that (something he still hasn't learned even almost a year into his presidency).
I, for one, will defend the press' decisions to cover what they do. Our jobs are not easy. Journalists make decisions, and big ones, every day. And with all that is happening in our modern world, they're the toughest decisions, and they change on sometimes an hourly basis.
It's not an easy job. But we do it for you, America. Remember that.