On August 16, 2018 over 350 editorials were released by CNN, The Daily Herald, The Boston Globe, and all of the big and small news sources responding to President Donald Trump. His Tweet, which read, “The Fake News hates me saying

that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE … They are very dangerous and sick,” sparked anger in myself and all of those in the journalism field.

It was my second year in our high school newspaper, The Mustang, and I was sitting in class surrounded by my fellow journalists when I heard about the situation. It wasn’t all that surprising that our president was lashing out against the  media again, let alone using “fake news” to describe us. Except, this time I was distraught because I’m a journalist myself; I believe I provide our readers with true information, in addition to the hundreds of other news sources in America. Having our own president place such a negative connotation on the free press made me want to take my own initiative.

It wasn’t until those hundreds of editorials were released that I felt I could write and share my own emotions with everyone. Beforehand, I never told or showed anyone what I was feeling or thinking, and I wrote it down rather than saying it aloud. All of my anger and sadness poured into poems, and the things I feared most were turned into stories. However, the release of the editorials showed me that I didn’t have to tape the pieces up on my bedroom wall and hide them in the furthest corner of my room. I have my own voice, and others want to hear it. I decided to turn a new page in my book of life. I was sad that I had no one to be proud of me or in awe of my writing. I wanted to share my truth. The Denton Record-Chronicle wrote, “Fact is, we are not the enemy of the people – we are the people.” Those words did more than just speak to me, they inspired me. I felt like it was my time to speak.

A fellow editor and I decided to respond to the reports with our own editorial entitled, “The Press Trumps the President,” and we published it in our school newspaper. We took the liberty of believing that the pen is truly mightier than the sword; without any fear or worry in our eyes, we exercised our right to voice our opinions as writers, protected by our very own First Amendment. 

So we wrote:

A major principle that we believe in, as journalists, is the freedom of the press. This is one of the foremost rights afforded to us as Americans, and the free press is the cornerstone of our form of government. This right not only allows us to criticize government
actions as a whole, but it allows us to non-slanderously critique individuals at the highest levels of our society.

I choose to believe that we are not the enemy of the people, we are the enemy of ourselves. Every action that we do affects someone in some way, and the actions that Donald Trump performed alongside the 350 different news sources affected me more than ever before. I am no longer going to hide what I have to say, for the art of writing and journalism not only says but tells the stories of the other millions on this Earth. Those stories are more than just for pleasure, they’re to tell everyone, everywhere the most relevant and accurate information. In my future, I seek to write that information that will change the world and all of those in it.