Thigh-High Politics is an op-ed column by Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca that breaks down the news, provides resources for the resistance, and just generally refuses to accept toxic nonsense.

On Tuesday, a press briefing at the White House quickly turned into a public mockery of journalists, as deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders deflected questions in favor of deriding the press. Emboldened by a since-retracted article by CNN that involved Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci, Sanders took up the pulpit for a lambasting of reporters that was less official White House interview than scolding by Miss Trunchbull from Matilda.

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It was then that Playboy correspondent Brian J. Karem used his question to push back on Sanders’s explicitly antijournalism message.

“If we make the slightest mistake, the slightest word is off, it is just an absolute tirade from a lot of people in this room,” Sanders said, speaking as the representative of an administration that lied about its inauguration crowd size less than 24 hours after taking office.

“But news outlets get to go on,” she went on, “day after day, and cite unnamed sources, use stories without sources ... you mentioned the Scaramucci story, where they had to have reporters resign.”

“Come on, you’re inflaming everybody right here, right now with those words,” Karem began, voice nearly quivering. “This administration has done that as well. Why in the name of heavens — any one of us, right, are replaceable. And any one of us, if we don’t get it right, the audience has the opportunity to turn the channel or not read us.”

“You have been elected to serve for four years at least,” he continued. “There’s no option other than that. We’re here to ask you questions. You’re here to provide the answers, and what you just did is inflammatory to people all over the country, who look at it and say, ‘See, once again, the president’s right, and everybody else out here is fake media,’ and everybody in this room is only trying to do their job.”

I have previously written about the role of the press secretary as a position that exists somewhere on a spectrum between head publicist and minister of propaganda, and addressing the White House’s lack of an accuracy standard is an extremely significant portion of Karem's statement. But I would like to first zero in on the emotional plea of his words: “Everybody in this room is only trying to do to their job.”

Waning public trust in journalism and increasingly imprecise conversations about “the media” obscure the simple fact that journalists are human beings, and sometimes human beings make mistakes. Those mistakes must be publicly corrected — in the recent CNN case, CNN apologized, retracted the story, and three staffers resigned. But at reputable news media organizations, there are far fewer “sinister agendas” than there are journalists who are underpaid and overworked. (This concept applies to reputable news organizations and not fake news outlets; for help in deciphering between the two, check out our media literacy guide here.) Honest mistakes are not “an excuse” any more than it’s “an excuse” in any other job that hires people who are humans, and therefore, not perfect. Yet, critical discussion aimed at improving industry standards is frequently overwhelmed by an increasingly aggressive anti-journalism mentality. Attacks on the media, often led by the president himself, seem aimed at squashing out the press entirely by wagering reporting missteps as proof of moral worthlessness.

CNN’s Brian Stelter addressed the rise of this sentiment in a recent edition of his Reliable Sources newsletter. “[Anti-journalism] activists and commenters don't promote accountability, they promote resentment and hatred,” he wrote. “They claim that most, if not all, journalists have sinister agendas ... that newsrooms are occupied by ‘enemies of the people…’ and that the evil ‘MSM’ [mainstream media] is propaganda. These anti-J people claim that reporters routinely cover up good news and invent bad news.” (It’s worth noting that corporate ownership can interfere with journalistic independence, but reputable publications still honor the divide between editorial and business decisions, and are transparent about the ways they intersect.)

Motivation is crucial here; the claim of disinformation by the press is the fundamental falsehood in the White House’s anti-journalism messaging. The idea that inaccurate information, be it a sloppy headline or misappropriated statistic, is part of some grand scheme concocted by the “liberal media” is, for all intents and purposes, a conspiracy theory with no more validity than Sandy Hook denialism or Pizzagate. Most newsrooms are structured to safeguard against mistakes, with editors, fact-checkers, and sometimes even legal experts reviewing stories. An internal investigation revealed that the CNN incident was due to a lack of rigor in that process of verification. As a journalism outlet, CNN failed in its duty, and responded accordingly; there was no villainous mustache-twirling involved.

Overall, “the media” is not monolithic force, it is many individuals, making a mix of ethical, editorial, and business decisions, no better coordinated than all of the balls in a ball pit. Furthermore, if any blanket statement can be made about the press right now, the opposite problem is true: the most distinguished publications are so terrified of the grander public perception of bias, that they lose sight of objectivity of method, fussing instead over how they are perceived. (From a past column: we might call this “pulling a Comey.”)

With Sanders at the podium, and the president at the helm of his Twitter feed, the White House has deliberately ushered in this anti-journalism mindset by insisting upon the myth of some collective dogma, enacted via dishonesty. That mentality is then ignited by conservative outlets like Fox News, a network that once earnestly asserted that a “Journalism Matters” T-shirt from the Los Angeles Times was “anti-Trump.” Chief strategist Steve Bannon has stated that the press is “the opposition party,” and it’s become undeniably clear that the Trump administration has chosen to respond to that decidedly adversarial relationship with the full force of browbeating that their platform and authority allows.

To all Americans, and especially Trump supporters: Heed Karem's statement, and, furthermore, remember this: Journalism is beholden, first and foremost, to citizens. There are lazy reporters, and even corrupt reporters, just like there are crappy doctors and lawyers and hairdressers, and baristas who can never, for the love of GOD, get your name right, what the hell, I come here every day. Still, the majority of journalists are working to empower citizens with information, and that is not, nor has it ever been, the motivation of the White House. Journalists are beholden to you, and therein lies the most important difference between the government and the press, perhaps starker than ever in our current White House — for if one truth has emerged in these past five months, it’s this: Trump is beholden only to Trump.

Things to Read:

For Brian Stelter’s full analysis of “anti-journalism,” check out the full Reliable Sources newsletter. The Congressional Budget Office analysis predicting 22 million people would become uninsured over the next 10 years under the GOP’s attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act temporarily doomed the effort, though the effort is far from dead. Follow along with the Washington Post’s aggressive coverage, including regular updates on the homepage. In agreeing to hear cases related to Trump’s ban of travel to the U.S. from six predominantly Muslim countries, the Supreme Court determined that, until a decision is made on the order, those seeking entry must have a “bona fide relationship” with someone in the United States. Read The New York Times's report on how the ambiguous ruling will impact refugees.

Things to Do:

If you can, consider supporting the press by making a donation to the Committee to Protect Journalists or the Society of Professional Journalists. Once again: Happy Friday, have you ever thought about running for office? Head over to Emily’s List for resources that can help start the process. Stay up to date on the Senate’s ongoing health-care process, and be prepared to contact your representatives, beginning with resources like 5 Calls.

Correction: This piece has been updated to correct the spelling of Brian Karem's name.

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