Journalists face an enormous challenge in covering the Trump administration. In fact, this is a challenge for all Americans.

Propaganda is a strong word, but one that reflects the dangerous situation Americans face from the Trump administration. Donald Trump and his key advisers including Steve Bannon must be called what they are — propagandists who have contempt for truth and are willing to reject efforts to apply the rules of reality to their words and actions.

“ If you see something, say something. ”

The media plays an essential role in our democracy by delivering information for Americans to assess what their government is doing. Then people can decide if they support the government’s position or not.

But it’s not just the media — all Americans have an essential role as watchdogs, to defend truth and objective facts. Take a page from the Homeland Security directive: If you see something, say something. If you see, read, or hear something from the Trump administration that you know is not true, speak up.

Some might be tempted to dismiss “alternative facts” as a political talking point with no lasting effects. That’s a serious mistake.

Truth and trust are essential to our democracy, just as they are essential in our daily lives. Suppose you worked for a boss who persistently lied about matters both large and small. How could you trust that person? What if your boss asked you to take part in this lying by backing him or her up in meetings with board members or when drafting public reports? What if you encountered persistent lying in a personal or intimate relationship — for example, with a spouse or a business partner?

If any of this would be a problem for you, then you should fiercely support a free press that delivers accurate information. We cannot make informed decisions as citizens and voters without factual information about our government. Journalists act as watchdogs by sounding alarms when elected officials and others in positions of power don’t tell the truth.

Trump administration's strained relationship with media continues

To be sure, elected officials — like people in general — lie sometimes. Journalists have an essential role to play in calling attention to the big, important, persistent lies. Think of the free press as the accountant who shows you the hard truth about your business partner or the whistleblower who calls attention to deceptive shareholder reports.

Without accurate information, we cannot make informed decisions in any aspect of our lives. This is especially vital for citizens in a constitutional democracy confronted with a government that sees facts and truth itself as malleable. Garry Kasparov, a political opponent of Vladimir Putin’s who left Russia for his own safety, describes the danger: “The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or to push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.”

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed — that’s the point of propaganda. But we are not powerless, and we don’t have to be passive. Make yourself heard. Phone your elected representatives and ask what they are doing to expose and respond to lies coming from the White House. Contact television network news directors and ask them what they are doing to expose propaganda.

If you talk to someone who repeats lies back to you, call them on it. Yesterday, I heard a visitor in the office next to me telling a co-worker about violence that supposedly occurred during the Womens’ March in Washington, D.C. last Saturday. But there was no violence there — not even a single arrest. It was a lie, and I walked next door to say so. Later, my co-worker came by to thank me. She had felt uncomfortable in correcting her visitor and was glad I had done so.

Consider what veteran journalist Dan Rather said a few days ago: “Facts and the truth are not partisan. They are the bedrock of our democracy. And you are either with them, with us, with our Constitution, our history, and the future of our nation, or you are against it.” These are, indeed, not normal times, as Rather and others have observed. Ending what is becoming an Orwellian reality is up to all of us.

Chris Edelson is an assistant professor of government in American University’s School of Public Affairs. His latest book, Power Without Constraint: The Post 9/11 Presidency and National Security, was published in May 2016 by the University of Wisconsin Press.