With the current national political climate placing the press under tremendous scrutiny, five reporters dedicated their evening to giving media consumers a look into the work journalists are doing, and discussing the positive outlook they see for the future of the press.
This discussion included how news stories are frequently labeled as false when they paint someone in a bad light, the effect that President Donald Trump has had on the media.
The paneled, labeled “Fake News, the First Amendment and Democracy,” was held on Wednesday, May 17 at the Rye Community Synagogue.
We Persist, a liberal organization founded by women in Rye and Rye Brook shortly after the Women’s March in January 2017, hosted the event, and recorded the event’s attendance at 350 people.
Andi Hessekiel, co-chair of the Freedom of the Press/First Amendment Action Team, which is one of the teams that make up We Persist, explained that the organization’s goal is to advocate for democracy.
“[We Persist was] talking about what can we do about what seemed to be an effort by the new president of the United States to develop distrust in the press and in some cases keep the press out of public events,” Hessekiel told the Review following the event.
Williams, reporter and anchor for ABC7 “Eyewitness News,” at a journalists’
panel discussing the rise of “fake news.” Photo/Andrew Dapolite
The evening’s panelists included Heather Cabot, a previous ABC News correspondent and anchorwoman; Taegan Goddard, who founded PoliticalWire.com; Chris Vlasto, an executive producer at “Good Morning America”; Diana Williams, a reporter and anchor for ABC7 “Eyewitness News”; and Andrea Canning, a correspondent at Dateline NBC.
They were led in the discussion by Lee Woodruff, who is a contributing reporter for “CBS This Morning.”
During the conversation on “fake news” Woodruff pointed out that prior to the current presidency, the term “fake news” was mostly reserved for websites like AbcNews.com.co and Cnn.com.de that create their own false news stories to spark a reaction from readers.
But today, when one uses the term “fake news,” it is normally associated with attacks by Republican politicians on reporters.
This can be seen by President Trump’s use of Twitter, where he frequently calls out publications and journalists that he believes are painting him in a bad light through random, oftentimes early morning tweets.
Trump, not surprisingly, turned out to be the primary focus of the discussion.
But for one local resident, that was the reason why she had wanted to attend.
“I was really interested in hearing what journalists had to say about Trump threatening the press, and calling respected news outlets fake news,” said Heather Stone, of Larchmont.
Williams tried to explain the unprecedented difficulties as a journalist trying to cover this presidency, referring to Trump as a different kind of president.
Williams said that because Trump is active “24/7,” especially on social media, news outlets need resources that are able to cover his activity, and reporters are being forced to adapt to this type of constant coverage.
“It’s not that we aren’t doing the job [of reporting,] I think we’re doing the job as best as we can,” Williams said. “But it’s a different job now.”
Hessekiel, who called the event an overall success, explained that part of the importance of the event was so that the public could get a behind-the-scenes look at some of the issues that journalists now face.
The panelists were eventually asked to discuss what they thought the future of journalism would look like and whether freedom of the press is under attack by the Trump administration.
Vlasto said, “I think we’re more vibrant now than ever.”
Vlasto added that when journalists are attacked by politicians, they should wear it as a badge of honor, and not be afraid of backlash.
Canning shared a similar sentiment, saying that she wasn’t worried about the future of the press. She explained that under the new administration, reporters’ jobs might be more difficult, but they shouldn’t let this stop them from doing it.
“That is why we put together this evening—to remind people that though the current president may be attacking the press, the press is crucial to holding politicians accountable for their actions,” Hessekiel said.
