Rantz: Reporters are babies when dealing with Trump

Overwhelmingly, those of us in the media — whether journalists or analysts or anything in-between — have huge egos with low self-esteem. It’s a weird head space to know that everything you do is the best ever done, while simultaneously feeling gutted when criticized. To do what we do, there’s a significant level of vulnerability on display. You can see some of our true nature come through when President Donald Trump goes on the attack.

Related: Shameful, bizarre celebration of fake Trump news

Last week, the news media was overwhelmed by irresponsible, shoddy reporting — or fake news — that serves as great examples as to why seemingly no one trusts journalists. And, since it plays into the hands of Trump’s war on ‘fake news’, the President obviously went on the attack. In a couple of tweets, Trump called out Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel for tweeting out a misleading photo on the size of a crowd at a speech by the President. Weigel apologized for the tweet, deleted it, and acknowledged it was wrong. Then, Trump called for WaPo to fire him.

Cue: the hypersensitive, biased media reaction.

All of a sudden, a bit of criticism and the call for someone to be fired — not a demand or decree of any kind — was turned into an attack on the First Amendment by some. MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin said it seemed “like a public threat to the First Amendment.” Others claimed the President is “bullying” Weigel. Indeed, CNN media and Trump critic Brian Stelter said “the president’s statement is inviting followers to gang up on a reporter.”

What they both mean to say is they don’t like being called out individually by important people.

Stelter would go on to ask on Twitter: “Ask yourself: Do you think it’s appropriate for the president to call for individual journalists to be fired?”

I’ll answer Stelter’s question — even though he meant it rhetorical, thinking his anti-Trump audience would say it’s inappropriate. It’s just as appropriate for Trump to call out inaccurate, misleading, or downright false news reports — and the reporters who publish them — than it is for reporters to call out Trump every time he says something inaccurate, misleading or downright false. People who lie or get things wrong, particularly when they damage an institution or a career, should be called out so that the next time the reporter puts out some information, they’ll double or triple check its veracity.

Related: Yes, there’s a huge anti-Trump media bias

Folks in the media hate being called out. We loathe it. Remember: everything we do is perfect, so when you yell at us for getting something wrong, it makes us feel small and even more insecure than we already do. Reporters and journalists – or those pretending to be, like Stelter – don’t like getting called out by important, powerful people. We can withstand a nasty tweet from a troll online, but when the President calls us out, it can cost us our job. And we especially feel scared when caught in a mistake – or lie – that we should actually be fired for.

Presidents going after the news media is nothing new; President Barack Obama engaged in a concerted war on FOX News. Indeed, it was cheered on by the same slacktivists on Twitter claiming Trump’s criticism of CNN or WaPo is an attack on journalism.

What’s new here, in particular, is being called out by name by a President a majority of media members out there simply hate.

Before, when someone like Weigel put out a false bit of news, the criticism would be absorbed by the Washington Post, a news institution that can survive the criticism, thus protecting the reporter who made the error or told the lie.

Now? Trump is making it so that the individual responsible for the “fake news” will be held personally to account. That’s bad news for sloppy reporters, but will ultimately make them better reporters so when they end up going after the President rightfully, they’ll actually be trusted. The winners in all of this? News consumers who would prefer reporters think before they tweet out a story or factoid informed by an anti-Trump bias.​

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