The coverage of Donald Trump by the press has been abysmal at best — from the moment he entered the presidential race to now. And since Trump publicly stated that he has a running war with the media, I can't say there's much chance of a light at the end of the tunnel.

Trump has done his best to discredit the press, and so far it's working. The New York Times, CNN and media outlets alike are quickly becoming synonyms for fake news as Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, labels all of their reporting as "alternative facts." The real truth of the matter is Trump does not get along well with facts and the press is fact-based.

Don’t Shoot the Messenger

Let's look at it this way: you work at the Apple Store as a salesperson. A customer walks in and says they'd like to purchase an iPhone 7. You look through your inventory, but your store is all sold out. When you tell this to the customer, however, they begin to yell at you and tell you that's impossible because this is the Apple Store and every Apple Store has iPhones. While you insist there aren't any in stock and even show them your tablet so they can see it with their own eyes, they still don't accept it. They yell at you some more, make a huge scene in front of all the other costumers and threaten to tell everyone they know not to buy products from the Apple Store.

You can't argue with the facts. Trump may choose to ignore the facts or try to discredit them, but that doesn't make them go away.

The press is the honorary fourth branch of the government. It holds everyone accountable. It is a watchdog. It might not say good things about you all the time, but that's not in the job description.

Now I'm not saying the press is always right because it isn't (just reread the first line of this article), but the American people need the press. How are we supposed to know whether or not the people we voted into office are representing us the way we expected them to? How do we know they're not screwing us over or putting us at risk? Without the press, our government could do whatever it wanted and then lie to us about it.

The Press in the Trump Era

Since the day Trump took office, the press has done a shockingly horrible job of covering him. Government social media accounts have been shutting down since two Friday's ago. Some have been reinstated, some haven't and some have disobeyed orders to not post anything.

In the days following the inauguration, the media focused all its energy into instigating drama with Trump over the size of his crowd versus Obama's in 2009, dedicating only a few stories to this issue. So not only did they know about the shutdowns, but they willingly let them get buried under way less important stories. Several days went by before the shutdowns became the leading news story.

There is no doubt Trump is a master manipulator of the press. Anything he says that is even mildly outrageous will send the press into a five-day tizzy of repetitive broadcasts and political commentary from the most obnoxious panel of people who can't hold a decent conversation. It's all purposeful and the press falls for it every single time.

This Feels Like Déjà Vu…

Well it should because the current Trump-press situation has several parallels to the era of McCarthyism.

Joseph McCarthy was your typical no-name senator from Wisconsin who desperately wanted the American people to know his name. So in Feb. of 1950, he stepped up to the stage in Wheeling, West Virginia to give a speech and announced he knew of 205 communists who had infiltrated the State Department. That got everyone's attention.

He never provided any solid evidence and the number of people he had on his "list" was always changing. During this time, however, news was truly objective — a journalist only reported what was said instead of injecting any kind of commentary that could contradict or support the statements. This led to McCarthy's outlandish claims becoming lost among other stories of the time because he understood how the press worked right down to the wire services. He knew the wires worked on a strict deadline and if he sent out a press release at 8 a.m. there wouldn't be time for anyone to rebut or comment on it.

A lot of people lost their jobs and their good standing with the American people over McCarthy's unsubstantiated claims. Thankfully a few years later the press was able to reveal the truth. Journalists learned their lesson and bolder, more responsible reporting was established.

Lesson Really Learned?

With Trump outwardly ignoring the facts under the title of President and forcing his press secretary to lie about trivial issues that were easily disproved, it's clear he has no problem suppressing the truth in order to favor himself. So what will the press of today do? Will they continue to let Trump manipulate and distract them from the real issues at hand or will they break their trance and hold him accountable and keep him honest?

This situation is not to be taken lightly. If the press wants to drop the ball on this again, well, they'll suffer the consequences. But we need the press in order to protect democracy — their job is to hold our government accountable and keep it honest. We cannot be left in the dark on what our government is doing, especially when it appears our President wants just that.