I'm glad Donald Trump's gone.
Hear me out.
It's not because of his party, politics or policies. It's because he got in the way of me doing my job for you.
Prior to President Trump, "fake news" was the supermarket tabloids with stories like, "Alien Bible Found." "FBI Catches Bat Child." And the evergreen title "I brought Elvis back to life."
The term "fake news," as President Trump used it, was simply news about him that he didn't like or news that he didn't want to hear or want you to hear. Whether that news was accurate was irrelevant. "Fake news!" he would say.
Sometimes in life things don't go your way. And if you are president, those things sometimes get reported. That's not fake news. That's news news.
The thing is though, when the world's most powerful person says the news is "fake news", a lot of people are going to believe him. A lot of people did.
My job — our job, the job of journalists — is to give you accurate information about the community, city, state and country you live in so you can make the right decisions for your life.
That's all there is to it. There's no ulterior motive. There is no secret sinister club of news folk taking orders from George Soros.
We're your neighbors. We live here with you. We are Coloradans. We go to church with you and send our kids to the same schools as yours. We have the same problems. We drive on the same terrible roads as you. The plows don't plow our neighborhoods either because they are the same neighborhoods you live in.
We work really hard to find out what is really going on so we can tell you about it and help you make sense of it.
But if half of you think we are "fake news" well, that gets in the way of you hearing the information you need to decide who to vote for, how to get the vaccine, and which restaurant to avoid because its filthy.
My hope is that without the constant drumbeat of "fake news, fake news!" coming from the White House, those of you who tuned us out will tune us back in.
We'll tell you when a Republican is right and when they are wrong. We'll tell you when a Democrat is wrong and when they are right.
Accurate news, even when it's what you don't want to hear, is important. It's not fake news.
"Merman Caught in South Pacific" — that's fake news.
Editor's Note: Denver7 360 stories explore multiple sides of the topics that matter most to Coloradans, bringing in different perspectives so you can make up your own mind about the issues. To comment on this or other 360 stories, email us at 360@TheDenverChannel.com. See more 360 stories here.
