President should respect free press

Journalists hold dear the First Amendment of the Constitution, which protects your right and need to know more than what your government is telling you. Journalists are doing their job and are not trying to tear down a nation, only trying to strengthen it believing the fundamental premise behind the First Amendment, that our nation is stronger if its people are informed.

Our Founding Fathers enshrined the freedom of journalists in the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson wrote: "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and cannot be limited without being lost."

Donald Trump swore an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution. The First Amendment is the stated guarantee of a free press from government dictates and an implied responsibility of journalists to be a check on the government's enormous powers.

Our democracy depends on journalists doing their jobs. It is essential that citizens get solid, accurate, and fair information they need to make a good judgment about politicians and policy decisions

President Donald Trump has dominated the news media throughout the world. Journalists have written about his everyday activities with facts that are truthful, but Trump has referred to professional journalists written stories as "fake news" and has called media coverage the "enemy of the people."

On Dec. 12, 2017, President Donald Trump tweeted the following statement: "Very little discussion of all the purposely false and inflammatory stories put out by the Fake News Media. They are out of control, correct reporting means nothing. Major lies written, then forced to be withdrawn after they are exposed, a strain on America.'

Gerald Hutson

Elgin