The sky is blue, the grass is green and President Donald Trump hates the press.
While most presidents have a begrudging relationship with the media at best, Trump's latest ban of CNN, The New York Times, BBC, the Guardian, Politico, Buzzfeed and the Daily Mail serves as a gross reminder of his blatant disrespect for the United States Constitution. In a supposed democracy that values freedom of the press as first on the list of our nation's Bill of Rights, Trump's latest actions are tyrannical and slanderous.
As put by CNN's "The Lead" host Jake Tapper, Trump's actions are not preemptive measures against a "dishonest" media: it is "un-American."
When the man who sits in our nation's highest office disregards the urgent requirement of a free media as a fourth branch of government, we transcend the line from democracy into tyranny, preference into censorship. The fact of the matter is, the press isn't here to stroke your ego and boast your morale, Trump. They're here to keep you accountable.
When CNN's Anderson Cooper told Trump's presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway that his job was not to be her friend, he was vilified by the extreme right-wingers of the United States as a disgraceful example of the type of treatment Trump has endured from the media during both his campaign and presidency. Cooper, and journalists like him, aren't here to kiss ass and appease a man with a toddler's temperament. Their jobs are to provide this country's constituents with the information necessary to form intelligent, well-rounded opinions.
There's no denying that every form of media comes with its own slant and bias. That is the way the world works; no human being is ever fully objective. But when publications like Breitbart News are touted as credible sources of journalism over the likes of CNN and the New York Times, it becomes ever more clear that the President of the United States doesn't give a damn about truth — his priority is his agenda.
What Americans need now, more urgently than ever, is the presence of a diligent, aggressive press corp to hold our leader accountable. Alternative facts are not facts; they are conspiracies based in a fraction of truth that, still, are lies.
When we allow our nation's leader to censor who has access to his press conferences, we are doing a disservice to both American citizens as well as disgracing the principles upon which this nation was founded. Censorship isn't patriotism, it is fear-mongering and manipulation of a country's worth of people to fulfill your own vile, twisted agenda.
Benito Mussolini once said: "The press of Italy is free, freer than the press of any other country, so long as it supports the regime."
Trump is not a symbol of American democracy; he exists as the antithesis of it.
