I have always believed that the chief responsibility of a journalist is to communicate the truth to the people. Certainly, especially in the polarized and complex world of today, finding that truth is easier said than done, and finding the best way to communicate it is sometimes even harder. True journalists are able to overcome these challenges, however, by adhering to the core values of integrity, responsibility and fairness in their reporting.

It has occurred to me that many journalists today have forgotten about or outright discarded these values.

ABC News had to retract a story revolving around the long-running investigation of the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia during the 2016 elections. CNN has had to retract several stories regarding the same issue, among them a story about Trump administration officials being connected to Russian investments. Most recently, several news outlets have backed a story about our President allegedly having heart disease--something that was quickly proven to be false by President Trump’s physician.

These inaccuracies continue to be published as factual, leading me to believe that this is no longer a matter of misunderstandings making it through the editorial stage.

To put it simply, if these organizations truly cared about the reliability of their content, they would amend their grievous errors by taking responsibility and seeing to it that they never occur again. However, this is only wishful thinking at this point in time.

When they are not reporting incorrectly, the mainstream news networks are reporting on news that holds little pertinence to the people and their interests. Lest we forget that things like First Lady Melania Trump’s choice of shoes and President Trump’s affection for Diet Coke were largely considered to be “valuable news.” Meanwhile, issues like the censorship of and attacks against conservative ideals in our education system or violence against police officers are typically ignored by these news networks.

As much as we might ridicule it with Internet memes or shrug it off as the ramblings of President Trump, fake news does indeed exist. And that should trouble all of us, Democrats and Republicans alike.

We cannot continue to live in a world where political bias gets in the way of accurate, reliable and relevant reporting. If we cannot trust our journalists nor understand the whys of their reporting, then our understanding of the world around us will be severely limited; after all, not all of us have access to the resources and the important figures that journalists can communicate with on a daily basis.

Moreover, there’s the effect that these misinformations and irrelevant stories have on the audiences exposed to them. On my Facebook account alone, I’ve had the extreme displeasure of seeing the vilification of the Republican party on numerous occasions, be it on the subject of immigration or tax reform, accompanied by comments charged by conservative hatred. To add to the issue, the ratio of conservative news content to liberal news content is staggeringly skewed toward the latter, both on social media and Internet search engines such as Google.

If we continue to publish and disseminate the kinds of news stories I have discussed, people will develop uninformed or overly-biased outlooks that will undoubtedly stymie healthy conversation about topics that are important to all people of all political affiliations. In fact, I would argue that this has already happened; as I mentioned before, college campuses, high schools, and even elementary schools have become breeding grounds for conservative intolerance. It would not be incorrect to infer that the source of this intolerance comes from the news that we consume, for journalism is ultimately where we receive the objective information needed for subjective opinion.

To everyone in this country who cares about having a fair and balanced view of the world, I urge you to carefully consider what news you consume. Challenge it, critique it; if possible, find alternative viewpoints that might give you a better picture of the situation.

To the mainstream news organizations online and on television, I say that paychecks and the prestige of breaking a news story before everyone else are not worth compromising journalistic integrity. I say that your political opinions and biases do not take precedence over providing your audiences with the open-minded outlook you claim to ascribe to. I say that I respect the First Amendment, but I do not respect using it as a shield for dubious or untrustworthy reporting.

If we are to ever make sense of the troubling aspects of our society and the international scene, we need news outlets that we can count on.