Donald Trump calls them the "enemy of the people." Critics accuse them of peddling "Fake News." Bombs are mailed to their offices. As the most visible members of the media, on-air journalists are often at the frontlines of any attacks on the Fourth Estate. And in a turbulent climate, these men and women who appear on our TV sets and screens each morning, noon and night to report the news and keep you informed may be the only ones able to keep our democracy safe.

Below, we talk to over 40 of today's top on-air journalists from ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC News and PBS about truth in the Trump era, reporting to a divided nation and how they feel about our country's future.

Photo by Jason Bell ABC Team: (Left to right) Mary Bruce - Senior congressional correspondent at ABC News, Martha Raddatz - Co-anchor of This Week and chief global affairs correspondent at ABC News, Jonathan Karl - Chief White House correspondent at ABC News, David Muir - Anchor of World News Tonight on ABC, Tom Llamas - Weekend anchor of World News Tonight and chief national affairs correspondent at ABC News

News is truly moving faster than ever before... "We operate at warp speed now." — Mary Bruce, Senior Congressional Correspondent for ABC "The pace is whiplash. It can change from the time you leave your house to the time you get to your job... We're no longer 24/7 with 24 hours — it's 24 seconds." — Gayle King, Co-host of CBS This Morning "When I started in the news business, I had to drive to Spokane County's (Wash.) Public Safety Building to see whether there were any press releases in the station's mailbox. Now, with social media – Twitter, in particular – 'news releases' are distributed to all of us in real-time. As a result, our access to information is nearly instantaneous and the news cycle is lightning fast." — Peter Alexander, Co-anchor of Weekend Today and NBC News White House correspondent

"Working in cable in the late 1990s and early 2000s taught me about hourly deadlines. Today, every second is a deadline: social media have erased the luxury of time." — Judy Woodruff, Anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour "Twitter, more than anything else, has ushered in the era of the instantaneous news cycle." — Jonathan Karl, Chief White House correspondent at ABC News "There's a sort of Memento quality where every day feels like it wipes the memory of the previous day." — Chris Hayes, Host of All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC "The pace is detrimental and the constant desire to keep feeding the pace is a weakness in the media it needs to correct. The public has a role, too." — John Dickerson, Co-host of CBS This Morning "It used to be that every source at the Capitol would ask, 'What is your deadline?' But that question has nearly gone away because the answer is usually 'now.' That has made things harder, but it has also made some reporting better." — Lisa Desjardins, Correspondent for PBS NewsHour

Photo by Jason Bell Gayle King, Co-host of CBS This Morning

...and it feels like there's more news to report than ever before. "When I started in the business years ago, a top story could last for days – even weeks. Now, we have a tough time getting all the day's news into a single hour." — Shannon Bream, Anchor of FNC's FOX News @ Night with Shannon Bream "There is no such thing as a slow news day anymore. Most days, it really does feel like you're drinking from a firehose. It's exhilarating and exhausting all at the same time." — Mary Bruce, Senior Congressional Correspondent for ABC "There is more information, from more sources, than ever before." — Wolf Blitzer, CNN's lead political anchor and host of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer

"There are many more news cycles in a day. It may be that social media has sped things up, but this President and how he tweets and puts information out has turned every day into a possible 3, 4 or 5 news cycle day." — Bret Baier, FNC's chief political anchor and anchor of Special Report with Bret Baier "Our role, and it's a privilege, is to try to help folks break through the noise." — David Muir, Anchor of World News Tonight on ABC

Much of this change in pace and volume is, of course, thanks to the Internet and social media — particularly Twitter. "I can remember when we had to check the wires for news. Now I check Twitter." — Norah O'Donnell, Co-host of CBS This Morning and contributor to 60 Minutes

"Twitter has become a great amalgam of wire services." — Martha MacCallum, Anchor of The Story with Martha MacCallum on FNC "The sharing of news is now decentralized." — Geoff Bennett, NBC News White House correspondent

"The Internet is the largest social communications revolution in world history so we are now covering a world that can now talk and talk back at a wider and faster distribution than ever before. And we're still just trying to figure out what to do about that." — Ari Melber, Host of The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC and MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent "When I started in journalism, we would often learn of breaking news from the wire services: AP, Reuters, UPI. It could take hours before we had a real understanding of what was happening. Technology has given us the ability to learn about and report stories, as they are developing, much faster than was once possible. Now, we often learn about breaking news on various social media posts. We will see a tweet from what appears to be an eyewitness. We are able to receive and air video of a shooting or a hurricane as it happens in a way that was never previously possible. That gives a breaking story an immediacy it didn't have years ago. It also forces us to make much tougher, split-second decisions about what we should put on television." — Wolf Blitzer, CNN's lead political anchor and host of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer

Photo by Jason Bell David Muir, Anchor of World News Tonight on ABC

While technology has brought many positive changes to journalism and made certain things easier... "Often, when news breaks, I find the most accurate information via local reporters, news stations and law enforcement agencies that have established reputations in that geographic region. By tracking down verified Twitter accounts in the locality where the news is breaking, I usually find reliable information relatively quickly." — Shannon Bream, Anchor of FNC's FOX News @ Night with Shannon Bream

"[Twitter] became such a critical part of telling [the story of what happened to Michael Brown] and it was the first time that organizers were fully organizing online, that people were coordinating on the ground using social media. You see the DeRay Mckessons of the world emerge from this landscape and I think that was a pivot point, especially for those journalists such as myself who make our money on the ground, telling the story, taking you to the where the story is actually happening... that changed everything for me." — Trymaine Lee, MSNBC correspondent

"When I started out, 'going live' meant you needed a satellite or microwave truck to transmit. Now, in many cases, we can go live and broadcast from anywhere in the world with a smart phone." — Tom Llamas, Weekend anchor of World News Tonight and chief national affairs correspondent at ABC News "The source of information is not just us or other journalists -- you now have citizens who can be the primary source of information. That was especially true with Black Lives Matter. You're finding out that this person has died because they're trending [on Twitter] and because people are putting up their own photos or their own information. We're not the gatekeeper anymore." — Joy Reid, Host of AM Joy on MSNBC and political analyst for MSNBC

"Technology has changed our jobs. For the better: we can find people directly involved in events on social media and bring eyewitnesses and people involved in a story to viewers much faster. This has happened to me covering stories including the Paris and Brussels terror attacks and hurricanes. And we find out about stories from social media -- an example is the Paris shootings, which broke on Twitter. Of course we must vet, vet, vet, but at its best, social media has democratized the news gathering process and brought more voices to the public." — Erin Burnett, Host of CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront "One really good way that things have changed over the years in terms of doing my job, is that technology aides in meeting deadlines. We can make phone recordings right there on the spot." — Harris Faulkner, Anchor of Outnumbered Overtime with Harris Faulkner and co-anchor of Outnumbered on FNC

Photo by Jason Bell Ari Melber, Host of The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC and MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent

...at the same time it's made other parts of the job more challenging. "While technology propels information faster than ever, it can also propel misinformation. So in a breaking news situation, we check, double-check and triple-check facts and we're transparent about that process to our viewers." — Elaine Quijano, CBSN anchor and CBS News correspondent "We also know that rapid distribution of information increases the error rate for misinformation and the distribution of falsehoods or lies. We've seen that in everything from hoaxes and what lawyers call defamation and foreign influence campaigns to trick Americans into fighting more with each other or hating each other or voting a different way... The Internet provides more light and more darkness and if we do our jobs right, it makes it all the more important that reporters find a way to be a credible referee within all of that." — Ari Melber, Host of The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC and MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent "When someone's tweeting [insults] at me, I'm not that tough. My feelings are totally hurt. I might be like, 'Oh, it doesn't bother me' but it totally bothers me. And I have kids and it's only so long that I can keep them away from social media and it breaks my heart that they're going to read those things. And, listen, that is a necessary evil. If I was that worried about [social media] I wouldn't do this for a living. But all that stuff gets to me in a huge way. As much as I can say, 'Oh, the tweeters and the trolls don't get to me,' I would be totally lying." — Stephanie Ruhle, Host of MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle, co-host of Velshi & Ruhle, NBC News correspondent

"Social media is a great tool because it allows us to tap in to the mood of the country at any given moment. Minutes after a story breaks, arguments for or against [that story] erupt... questions are raised and sometimes answered. For better or for worse, people express themselves on social media often with limited editing and thus social media can add emotional depth to our news coverage. There is a huge caveat though. We always have to guard against the fact that despite what we say, everyone is not on Twitter. Only certain people leave comments in the comment section after an article. So we're getting a slice of what the country is feeling and how the country is moving but it's not everything and everyone... and that's what we have to always keep in mind. It's a curated snapshot of the national zeitgeist." — Anne-Marie Green, CBSN anchor and CBS News correspondent "There's also the unusual thing [about social media], which is getting used to an environment that is 'humans-plus' — not everyone that you're responding to is even a human. There are bots and now you have automated swarms of non-people so we're actually in an environment where we're dealing with both human and non-human actors and that is unusual... Discerning who is human is a lot more complicated now." — Joy Reid, Host of AM Joy on MSNBC and political analyst for MSNBC

Journalists are spending more and more time fact-checking lies that come from social media — and the Trump administration. "I don't know if there's ever been a president who lies as a strategy." — Nicolle Wallace, Host of MSNBC's Deadline: White House and NBC News political analyst "Truth abuse is at a whole new level in politics." — Chris Cuomo, Host of CNN's Cuomo Prime Time

"We carry the truth and for people who don't want the truth out there... they find us to be dangerous." — Vladimir Duthiers, CBSN anchor and CBS News correspondent

"We always still go back to double checking, triple checking our sources the old fashioned way." — Gayle King, Co-host of CBS This Morning "We're in an era when lies are more bold and frequent, and basic standards of decency are frequently violated. I think it's also important for journalists to take a stand in favor of facts and decency, while remaining agnostic on policy and non-partisan on politics." — Jake Tapper, Host of The Lead with Jake Tapper and State of the Union and chief Washington correspondent at CNN



"I must do way more fact checking of guests and subjects since Trump entered the political arena." — Don Lemon, Host of CNN Tonight with Don Lemon

"Quite simply, fact checking used to be an important part of my work. Now it's the biggest part of my work. I check facts and explain things more than I analyze and contextualize. Long term, it's a bad trend." — Ali Velshi, Host of MSNBC Live with Ali Velshi, Co-Host MSNBC Live with Velshi & Ruhle, NBC News Business Correspondent "We not only need to double- and triple- check our own facts, but now we cannot take the word of any expert or politician (especially) as necessarily correct." — Lisa Desjardins, Correspondent for PBS NewsHour "Being a reporter in the Trump era has required a lot of adaptation, especially when it comes to live television. Whether it was during the campaign or now that he is president, there have been times when he says something that is live on television that is not fact based, or just flat wrong. Being a reporter or anchor around that event sometimes means trying to put it in context or explain what the facts are in real time. Fact checking was always part of the job because politicians in both parties put their own spin on things. But in recent years it has gone well beyond cutting through the spin, it is about correcting factual inaccuracies." — Dana Bash, CNN's chief political correspondent

Photo by Jason Bell Jake Tapper, Host of The Lead with Jake Tapper and State of the Union and chief Washington correspondent at CNN

And they must also contend with the President lambasting them as "Fake News" and the "enemy of the people." They have some strong feelings about these labels. "I think the phrase 'fake news' is misused and unfunny, and 'enemy of the people' is even worse." — Hallie Jackson, Chief White House correspondent for NBC News

"[President Trump] is clearly trying to chip away at empirical fact as part of his war against any accountability whatsoever. Dangerous." — Jake Tapper, Host of The Lead with Jake Tapper and State of the Union and chief Washington correspondent at CNN

"The use of the phrase 'fake news' to describe real journalism is corrosive. The only real antidote is to re-commit to accuracy and fairness in reporting." — Jonathan Karl, Chief White House correspondent at ABC News "President Trump has hurt the free press in this country. He's done it on purpose and he's done it with bad intentions. And he's been effective. However, his efforts have also turbocharged the commitment of many in the media to prove their worth and that means more emboldened scrutiny of those in power." — Chris Cuomo, Host of CNN's Cuomo Prime Time

"I have said before and I'll say again that I think calling the media the 'enemy of the people' is not helpful. It's not helpful to the situation, and I don't think that it improves the relationship between the press and the President." — Martha MacCallum, Anchor of The Story with Martha MacCallum on FNC "'The Media' is the people. We question authority on behalf of the people. We ask, 'who is responsible? How did this happen? Where do we go from here?' We do this because most people can't hold the powerful accountable. Most people have lives they are building and people they love to spend time with. So the media does it. The attacks on the media and the phrase 'Fake News' drive a wedge between the media and the people who we serve. But when you split a thing in two there is bound to be some damage. You can't undermine the media without undermining the people and thus the country. All I can do to bolster trust is be as transparent as possible. I don't mind saying when I don't have information or am coming up short on facts. I don't mind telling the audience that there are limits to my ability to tell a story. If the audience understands the challenges we face as news people then they can better understand why we deliver the news the way we do." — Anne-Marie Green, CBSN anchor and CBS News correspondent "I think the attack on journalism in general is reprehensible. What we do is written into and protected by the constitution. I'm sure it does impact the public's trust in some way. But the only way to combat that is to be accurate." — Don Lemon, Host of CNN Tonight with Don Lemon

"I think the president's use of 'fake news' and 'enemy of the American people' in attacking the press has done serious damage to the trust that many American have in journalists." — Judy Woodruff, Anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour "In an era where we are all lumped together as 'Fake News' my colleagues' mistakes are mine, and mine are theirs. We should be as vigilant as we possibly can be." — Martha Raddatz, Co-anchor of This Week and chief global affairs correspondent at ABC News "The attacks on the media work. And it breaks my heart. Are reporters humans who get things wrong? Of course. But we wake up every morning trying to get things right. By demonizing reporters and calling our work 'Fake News,' it is chipping away at a critical pillar of American democracy. Sowing distrust in journalism is bad for America, very bad. And most elected officials — Republican and Democrat — believe that to their core." — Dana Bash, CNN's chief political correspondent

Photo by Jason Bell Dana Bash, CNN's chief political correspondent

More and more, they are being mindful of how increasing partisanship affects viewers' perceptions of the news — and of those reporting it.

"We are always mindful we are reporting to a divide nation and we have to find a way to signal to the audience that we hear all sides and that we're asking questions for everyone." — David Muir, Anchor of World News Tonight on ABC "People only believe news that confirms their political leanings. The frustrating part is that they don't believe facts that don't support their ideology. That's not only bad for journalism, it's bad for the country." — Don Lemon, Host of CNN Tonight with Don Lemon "[There is now an] expectation that we will offer an opinion, a bias, on-air. People will often stop me and say — and they mean this as a compliment and I take it as such — 'Wow, I watch you and I can't tell if you're a Republican or a Democrat.' I always kind of smile, like, 'Alright.' I don't think of that when I do my job as a journalist but that, to me, is a symptom of this changing audience perception of what television news is about." -- Lester Holt, News anchor for the weekday edition of NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC

"I'm a brown, Muslim, female journalist in America. People often have ideas about who I am before I've finished introducing myself." — Amna Nawaz, National correspondent and substitute anchor for PBS NewsHour "In partisan times, the extreme voices have the loudest megaphone. The truth is usually in the middle." — Bill Hemmer, Co-anchor of FNC's America's Newsroom "A huge danger that we're facing and I focus on it every day in what we cover is the center of our country being hollowed out." — Stephanie Ruhle, Host of MSNBC Live with Stephanie Ruhle, co-host of Velshi & Ruhle, NBC News correspondent "One of the main reasons for journalism is to bear witness: to simply illustrate, explain and contextualize something that is happening. But with basic facts now in dispute, even THAT comes under fire for being partisan." — Ali Velshi, Host of MSNBC Live with Ali Velshi, Co-Host MSNBC Live with Velshi & Ruhle, NBC News Business Correspondent



"Something that I've never seen before now is that when you report something, a lot of times people are filtering the facts through the lens of how they see things politically. For example, if I report that there are 7,000 people in an immigrant caravan, hundreds of miles away from our U.S. border, and the President is sending troops, and the caravan has people in it who we have not vetted and don't know, those are static facts. Many people right now are filtering those facts through the lens of 'I'm voting this way or I'm voting that way.' I feel like sometimes they don't even hear some of the facts, because those facts don't fit the idea of what they think the story should be." — Harris Faulkner, Anchor of Outnumbered Overtime with Harris Faulkner and co-anchor of Outnumbered on FNC "I'm mainly counting on the younger generation to pull the country out of this death-spiral of polarization: my hope is that they'll be so dissatisfied with it, they'll begin to elect people to office who want to work with the other party." — Judy Woodruff, Anchor and managing editor of PBS NewsHour "The increased partisanship is disheartening. I firmly believe that as Americans we have more in common than we do differences. But let's be clear, moneyed interests and foreign governments are driving the perception of great division. Media and tech companies are profiting from hyperbole. Russia and China are disseminating fake news to divide Americans and that is the consensus view of our intelligence agencies. The truth is, the majority of this country is still open to compromise." — Norah O'Donnell, Co-host of CBS This Morning and contributor to 60 Minutes

Taken together, these changes are causing reporters to face new threats and take new safety precautions they've never had to before... "Every time you open your mouth, half the country is going to hate you and tweet death threats. On the plus side, it creates some thick skin, and on the downside, you worry that somewhere someone's going to take their animosity too far." — Nicolle Wallace, Host of MSNBC's Deadline: White House and NBC News political analyst "Sometimes now I feel that we have to be a little bit more careful... because just attending some of the rallies, we've seen the vitriol and the anger." — Vladimir Duthiers, CBSN anchor and CBS News correspondent

"With the exception of my assignments in Iraq, Afghanistan and other war-torn regions, I've rarely needed security to do my job. That's all changed in the era of Trump where security is routinely assigned to travel with correspondents at rallies." — Peter Alexander, Co-anchor of Weekend Today and NBC News White House correspondent

"There's a lot more vitriol; I get a steady stream of insults and threats on social media." — Amna Nawaz, National correspondent and substitute anchor for PBS NewsHour

"It's the Thunderdome existence where you're targeted and judged personally for what you report. It works to have a thick skin and wear a grin whenever you can." — Chris Cuomo, Host of CNN's Cuomo Prime Time "I never really felt like there was a target on us until now, and that's not good, because we all have a job to do." — Harris Faulkner, Anchor of Outnumbered Overtime with Harris Faulkner and co-anchor of Outnumbered on FNC "The rise in hostility is all around us and many viewers and readers too often assume they know what we are thinking or assign motives to our reporting where they do not exist." — Kelly O'Donnell, NBC News White House correspondent

"We are living in a political era in which the President of the United States is trying to cast the pursuit of truth as a partisan enterprise." — Geoff Bennett, NBC News White House correspondent



...but they refuse to let this tense, new climate alter the fundamentals of their jobs or their approaches to it. "The fundamentals of my job do not change. I seek the facts, I report the news, I tell stories." — Martha Raddatz, Co-anchor of This Week and chief global affairs correspondent at ABC News "We report. We seek truth, the best stories, the best writing. That was true 50 years ago, it's true today, it will be true 50 years from now." — Jeff Glor, Anchor of CBS Evening News "Things may be more polarized now, but the mission is the same: report what you see and learn — accurately and fairly." — Anderson Cooper, Host of CNN's AC 360

"The important thing is just providing a reality check, whether it's Donald Trump or Barack Obama or whoever is the president or whatever people are in power, about the perception of what's happening in the country, in the real world, and what's really going on." — Jacob Soboroff, MSNBC correspondent and anchor

"It is important to stress – a fundamental part of a journalist's job is to hold the president accountable for his or her words and promises." — Kristen Welker, NBC News White House correspondent

"You've got to roll with the punches and you've got to make sure that you've not just double checked it but you've triple and quadruple checked your story and your sources to make sure you have accurate, factual information that you're reporting to viewers." — Bianna Golodryga, Co-host of CBS This Morning

"Words still have consequences and truth still matters." — Geoff Bennett, NBC News White House correspondent

"My mission is to try and share the voice of people who don't have a voice -- to try and share their truth. I may not be able to save any lives, but I can at least honor and dignify the people who are suffering, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted." — Vladimir Duthiers, CBSN anchor and CBS News correspondent

"We're in a new normal now and I don't know how to combat that except to double down on the truth, double down on our storytelling from the ground." — Trymaine Lee, MSNBC correspondent

"[Journalists need to] shine that light in dark places, challenge and hold people in power accountable... We can't be afraid. The critics are louder and they're sitting in higher positions than we've ever had to deal with but we can't have fear. There's no appeasement of those who will make reckless charges against the state of journalism." — Lester Holt, News anchor for the weekday edition of NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC

Photo by Jason Bell Lester Holt, News anchor for the weekday edition of NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC

Though they're not above some self-reflection about what the media can do more, do differently or do better.

"Some of the current challenges require not taking the bait or thinking we're the story." — John Dickerson, Co-host of CBS This Morning "As the Fugees used to say, 'Too many MCs, not enough mics' and that's certainly the case in political opinion." — Ari Melber, Host of The Beat with Ari Melber on MSNBC and MSNBC Chief Legal Correspondent "There's a rush of competition to be first and not best. So what you see, whether it's news reporters or organizations on the ground, everyone wants to be chiming in and the truth is the first consequence of that." — Trymaine Lee, MSNBC correspondent

"I think it's okay to be transparent about our process. Sometimes, we're uncovering the information along with the audience." — Amna Nawaz, National correspondent and substitute anchor for PBS NewsHour "As the news cycle has sped up and gets even faster, I think there are moments in the media that I think we responsibly can hit that pause button, and audibly say 'let's take a moment.' We cannot change the news that's happening, but the way we report it in the instance in which it happens, I think we can impact that, in a very positive way." — Harris Faulkner, Anchor of Outnumbered Overtime with Harris Faulkner and co-anchor of Outnumbered on FNC

"We need to remind people what journalism is about, what we do and that the stories we do sometimes are going to make you mad because we're going to challenge your worldview, we're going to tell you something about something that you've always believed in and it might shake your faith but that is not to be confused with that we're making something up or that we just manufactured this news." — Lester Holt, News anchor for the weekday edition of NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC





"[We need to] tread carefully. Understand that it is okay to wait. In many ways, President Trump has provided enormous content for all cable outlets and that helps to keep the plates spinning and keep viewer interest. The risk is getting ahead of the story, always. Be patient." — Bill Hemmer, Co-anchor of FNC's America's Newsroom "I think that there is a tendency for journalists to feel important in the age of Donald Trump and, oh, you know, 'we're the targets of the president and what we do is more important now than ever' but I actually don't believe that. It's as important as it's always been and we just have to keep doing what we've always done." — Jacob Soboroff, MSNBC correspondent and anchor



Ultimately, despite these turbulent times, they still believe in the urgent need for solid journalism and they haven't lost faith in America or in the American people. "We have got to put our heads down and do what we know to do every day. Journalism will be here long after our current group of leaders are [not] in power." — Lester Holt, News anchor for the weekday edition of NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC "Americans have always fiercely disagreed. That's part of what makes us America!" — Jeff Glor, Anchor of CBS Evening News

"I think Americans come together and embrace the durability of facts when they see and feel the consequences of not doing so. Unfortunately that may require considerable hardship widely felt." — John Dickerson, Co-host of CBS This Morning

"People seem to be more civil when they can actually speak to each other, listen, and understand why some may not agree with their arguments." — Tom Llamas, Weekend anchor of World News Tonight and chief national affairs correspondent at ABC News

"I like to say that I'm a 'sunny pessimist.' I'm pessimistic overall because I see the way it's going and it's going in a direction that is difficult. But I do actually have a certain faith in humankind. I think that in the end, people find their better nature when it's really needed." — Joy Reid, Host of AM Joy on MSNBC and political analyst for MSNBC "We've weathered a lot in this country and I still have a belief that this democracy is as solid as it ever was." — Vladimir Duthiers, CBSN anchor and CBS News correspondent

"I've not given up on humanity and I've certainly not given up on the people in this country. So, no, I can't say that I'm pessimistic. The thing is, everybody knows the right thing to do." — Gayle King, Co-host of CBS This Morning

