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As I've listened to President Donald Trump go on tirades against the "very dishonest" media, I've tried not to take his criticism personally.

Lord knows, I've made my share of mistakes in my career. But they've never been on purpose, or out of malice.

In fact, after more than 30 years, I can still remember the phone call from a grieving relative when I misspelled a name in an obituary (I wrote Ronald instead of Roland). This was before articles were published online, so print newspapers were the permanent record. The man's family had to live with my error. However Trump bashes journalists, he'll never make me feel as bad as I did back then.

So here's the truth:

The press is not the opposition party. The media is not the enemy of the American people. Negative stories are not fake news.

And when Trump keeps making these claims, he isn't just attacking the press; he is chipping away at one of the pillars of our democracy.

It means something that a president who is all over the map on policy is so single-minded about going after reporters every chance he gets. In a recent tweet, Trump raised the stakes, calling the media "a great danger to our country."