"Fake News"

Fake news has become a phrase that just about everyone will recognize. Donald Trump has used this phrase countless times in speeches and, as of July 24, has tweeted this phrase 72 times. I found this exact number along with each Tweet using this phrase on ew.com and if you click here, you could take a look for yourself. It appears as though Trump labels news as "fake news" whenever it makes him appear to be disengaged in the process of making a decision, even if only slightly, or if a comment is made about him or his family that can be taken in a negative way. Although he is trying to make people stop paying attention to these news companies it appears as though he is bringing more attention to them by constantly Tweeting and talking about it, it makes you wonder why he doesn't simply ignore the comments. I don't think it is fake. Yes, every celebrity, star, or government official has rumors spread and fake stories are told, so I won't say that everything said about him is true, but the amount of things he says are fake is alarming and concerning. The words and phrases Trump uses when talking about news agencies also makes me think it is not all fake, he isn't professional in how he handles the matter and it seems like if he knew it weren't true he wouldn't be going to extremes to show the US that. For examples, look at the Tweets and how he uses the word sleazebag or how he calls the New York Times, a news company that has been around and deemed credible for quite a while, "A Fake News Joke." An article is written about this and can be read here.

I agree that he is harming the right of Freedom of Speech and the rights that accompany it in the First Amendment. People have been fired from their jobs because they printed information that Trump attacked by calling fake news and going after those who wrote it. People may end up fearing for their jobs if they write about news that involves Trump or his administration that he doesn't want printed for the world to see. It hasn't even been a year into his presidency and people are already becoming concerned for their freedom of speech and press, it leads me to wonder if there will be more rights people are questioning whether or not they still have.

With the state of affairs and Trump blasting his thoughts on Twitter it's put other people in an awkward situation. We live in a country where our government is formed through democracy, but the president is still more in control than most people. It would make sense that out president should be professional and respectful, but the Tweets we see don't match this description. This administration is weakening the use of social media by making a joke out of his accounts, if he were to one day apologize and begin to use Twitter in a way to positively reach thousands of people, I'm not sure if people would be able to take him seriously or not.