Shocking developments. For example, when you hear these words, are you still shocked . Have a running war with the media. They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth. That is how it began on trumps very first day waking up in the white house, he turned on the tv and he turned angry at what he saw. Journalists were pointing out that the audience for his inauguration was smaller than obamas, so trump fired backings, exaggerating his crowd size and then sending sean spicer out to defend him. Trump even described the inauguration weather inaccurate and said the skies became really sunny after his speech and it remained cloudy and started to rain a little bit. I think thats a metaphor for the year. Trump painted a picture of the american carnage and said he alone could fix it, believing his world was always sunny. When trump played loose with the facts and journalists challenged with him, he couldnt stand it. Heres an example youve probably forgotten. This is from february. The murder rate in our country is the highest its been in 47 years, did you know that, 47 years . I used to use that i would say that in a speech and everybody was surprised because the press doesnt tell it like it is. It wasnt to their advantage to say that. It wasnt to our advantage to say that because it wasnt true. Obviously Fact Checkers jumped into action trying to counter the claim that he was making about the murder rate. But, you know, trumps really cynical sinister view of journalism that we dont really want to tell the people the truth, it came through in his comments all year long. Heres another example. Radical islamic terrorists are determined to strike our homeland. Its gotten to a point where its not even being reported, and in many cases vet, very Dishonest Press doesnt want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that. There he is telling members of the u. S. Military that the press was intentionally downplaying, even covering up terrorist attacks. If anything, the opposite is true. All year long i heard anchors and reporters and editors reaching for new ways to say thats not true and that makes no sense, and all year long i heard the president coming up with new ways to call us the enemy. We are fighting the fake news. Its fake, phony, fake. A few days ago i called the fake news the enemy of the people, and they are. That was february. Now lets fast forward all the way to august. Truly dishonest people in the media and the fake media. They make up stories. They have no sources in many cases. They say a source says. There is no such thing, but they dont report the facts. Some people have gotten numb to this, but these are really sinister claims from a world leader and totally unsupported by the real facts. Heck, there were times this year that i used white house aides has Anonymous Sources because the aides would not speak on the record. Journalists dont go around making up sources but the onus was and is on us in the press to better explain why we do what we do, for example, why we agree to keep sources anonymous sometimes, how weve had our facts. Trumps daily media attacks have been a challenge and an opportunity so when he says Something Like this its frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write and people should look into it. Yes, yes, look in it. I think the more that you know about how newsrooms know and journalists work are the more likely you are to know that its not fake. One of the president s favorite words, fake. He will told his supporters all year long that the press was out to get him, out to take him down and many people believe it. The country is split on this question, and its an ongoing issue for newsrooms. So lets bring in an allstar panel of decisionmakers and newsroom leaders, sally busaby is the executive editor of the associated press, john avlon is daily editor of the daily beast requests as well as analyst here at known and Joanne Lipman is with the usa network and editor of usa today. And author of the upcoming back thats what she said. Lets talk about trumps attacks on the media and the responses. This is your first year as editor of the a. P. But before that you were at the a. P. For many years. Was this a challenging year to become an editor . This was a challenging year, no question. Both the extent of the interest in the trump story globally, and i think thats one thing thats very important, not just americans who pay an enormous amount of attention to this. People all over the world Pay Attention to the Trump Presidency and its difficult to get factual information out of this administration. Its provided a lot of new challenges to reporters. Yeah. But its also been such an important year, so important for the values that journalists hold dear, the importance of facts, and in some instances there have been a lot of challenges. Its been sort of an inspiring year in a sense in a way that i personally believe that consumers of news are actually seeking out Good Journalism and actually understand its values so for many our journalists theres been affirmation too as well. Joanne, are you seeing that . Were seeing there an interest in legit journalism, but i would also say, one of the most important things within the media itself is to understand, is to not internalize what were hearing. When we have attacks on the press from the president or anyone else, its so important not to internalize that and to well, lets be honest. That happened sometimes, didnt it . People took it too personally . Not just personally, but to take on the mantle of being the enemy, which the press is not. The press our job is to shine a light in dark corners and hold the powerful to account no matter who the powerful are, and thats what we have to continue to do. Marty baron, the head of the Washington Post said were not at war with the administration, were at work. John, do you believe most people believe, that that were not at war with trump. I hope so because thats really fundamentally whats happening here. We are a guarantor of liberty. We are the not the enemy of the American People the Founding Fathers provided a check for the power grabs. People are also being remind that had they cant take democracy for granted, that the free press isnt free, and that itself has an invigorating effect that i think is the Silver Lining we can tame from all these conflicts because this is sort of advanced civics people are experiencing in real time. A lot of old civics are democracy are being pushed back at home and around the world so this is the time for the free press to stand up and citizens to stand up and get involved because the alternative is too terrible to imagine. Trump certainly has forced conversations about profound issues, right . Yeah. Were talking the most important basic values that we all may share or not share. Theres been stories this year about race and class and gender that have affected the white house, so in a way hes enabled or or encouraged some really important soulsearching. Yeah, you know, there must be a pony in here somewhere, and and i think there are Silver Linings. I do think people are taking more civic responsibility, and i think youre seeing that in subscription rates. People subscribing to newspapers and joining membership models they hadnt before. They were taking for granted news content is free, and now they understand that they need to stand up and support independent journalism, that scoops matter and Investigative Journalism matter and thats what holds power to account and theres great controversy and were beset by social media trolls and its a bit of a novelty to be attacked by the president of the United States and journalists personally but we have to realize that we have a gift of the fact that our mission is clearer than ever right now. Thinking back to january and february versus now there was a lot more anxiety in the year among journalists, a lot more uncertainty about what a Trump Administration is going to mean. Is it fair to say, sally, the worst fears that some journalists have not actually been realized . Theres not been an explosion of libel lawsuits and the press hasnt been kicked on in the west wing and cameras are still on in the Briefing Room after a period when they were turned off. Our worst fears have not been realized. Theres been truth to this. We did not get kicked out of the white house. Do i still have some concerns about, i mean, the department of justice has said that there are a lot of leaks investigations going on, for example. We have some indication that the department of justice is still looking at some ways to sort of potentially eliminate some of the protections that have guided reporters in legal fights and things like that, and a lot that have is still up in the oh. I think theres also frankly a lot of journalists have actually kept their nose to the grindstone fairly well and chased facts, and i think that that has been the best thing thats happened this year. Every time we get distracted into sort of what i would call not terribly important fights with the white house, it takes us away from our main mission which is to go out there and find out what is actually going on. What is the impact of the policy changes that are being made . What is happening inside the white house . What is actually factually happening . And within our organization weve tried to say to not get distracted by some of these more, you know, sensational but not necessarily as important disputes that have been going on and try to keep your focus on what is really happening in this administration and your duty to report that. Thats opinion the most important thing i think this year that ive repeated again and again to our newsrooms is that weve got to keep our eye on the ball, on the issues that are important, on the president s actions, not Simple Police on the president s tweets. A researcher found that since 2015 the new president has posted about 1,000 antimedia messages on twitter so it does pile up. It does have an effect. John, think its a poisonous thing that hes constantly calling real outlets fake news but to some degree thats also a distraction. Yeah. Its absolutely our responsibility not to be distracted by things that are intended to be distractions, to focus on the facts what have actually impacts people, not just radioactive rhetoric, but, you know, the larger issue that i think we need to confront is something quite sinister and the president is an advocate, blurring the lines between fact and fiction. Fake news in the context of the 2016 campaign is something real, stories written with the intent to deceit. Sometimes for profit, sometimes for propaganda and had an impact on the election via social media. For the president to try to take that term back and direct it at credible news outlets, places filled with imperfect human beings but who do check facts, who do correct mistakes and who are pursuing truth every day what about the perception that the journalists are so sloppy and making mistakes all the time . If you watch Sean Hannitys show as often as i do you must think journalists are an evil species constantly screwing up on purpose to hurt the president . Right, and that would be false but sean hannity lives in a glass throne somewhere. In . Did have reason resign and seen errors at other major news outlets as well. Brian ross was suspended as well. Those are corrected and standards matter and when people make mistakes they take it into account. You shouldnt overcorrect because youll never please all folks. The source of the objection is an administration led by a president who lies at an uncommon rate especially compared to other president s, so this disregard for truth got to flow both ways. Its coming from the president , not from the press, and we need to remain steadfast and insisting on a factbased debate and everyone is entitled to their own opinion and not their own facts. Can i just add on the concept of fake news, something thats very dangerous as a meme. Ive instituted a rule at usa today and the usa network which is 109 local noups like the Detroit Free Press and the arizona republic. We dont use that phrase because its not correct, right. Theres false information. Theres propaganda. We need to call it what it is, but, again, by internalizing that phrase and remeeting it ourselves its a real misnomer. Its not news. Quick break. Lets keep this going after a quick commercial break. On the other side, well look back at inauguration weekend. Some of the questions that we had then and whether we have any answers now. Stay with us. Were just getting started. If hed taken tylenol, hed be stopping for more pills right now. Only aleve has the strength to stop tough pain for up to 12 hours with just one pill. Aleve. All day strong. But when we brought our daughter home, that was it. Now i have nicoderm cq. The nicoderm cq patch with unique extended release Technology Helps prevent your urge to smoke all day. 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Welcome back to this special edition of reliable sources, the press and the president. One of the themes of this year has been the assault on truth. The end of every year i love going back and look at what we covered and how, kind of like a selfevaluation, and when i went back and looked at january, our program from the weekend of trumps inauguration was like a time capsule. I asked a bunch of questions pertaining to the Trump White House and the media. I asked will President Trump deny reality on a daily basis . Will he make up his own false facts and fake stats and if so what are the consequences . Well, given the recent reports that hes questioned the authenticity of the access hollywood tape, i would have to say yes, there is some denial of reality. Now trumps critics say a lot of this is ultimately about maybe his own insecurities, that he wants to project a winning image. Thats why i think the single most Inconvenient Truth of the trump era, the truth he cant escape is from all the way back last year. Remember 2016, losing the popular vote to hillary clinton, losing by millions of votes contradicts all of the white houses claims about how the American People spoke and chose him so strongly. So for chump, well, he opts for an alternate reality. One. Very first leaks of the year, one of the very first things sources anonymously told reporters is back on january 23rd. It was about how trump are falsely told lawmakers that millions of illegal ballots had actually cost him the popular vote. Do you remember this . This was a big scandal . He was claiming 3 Million People had voted illegally. Actual little bill oreilly of all people asked him for proof. So you think youre going to be proven correct in that statement. Well, i think i already have. A lot of people have come out and said im correct. The data has to show that 3 million illegal voted. Forgot that. Forget all of that. Forget he said and change the the subject, but i dont think we should forget it. After all, this is part of the reason why the government set up a voter fraud commission. To this day trump continues to tout his Electoral College victory, you know, during his first and only solo press conference at the white house back in february he said he had the biggest Electoral College landslide since Ronald Reagan and during the press conference nbc Peter Alexander correct and checked on the president leading to this. Why should Americans Trust you when you accuse the information they receive of being fake when youre providing information thats well, i dont know, i was given that information. Thats absolutely not a good enough answer, but nearly a year later alexanders questions still apply. Why should Americans Trust you . Of course, that same question applies to all of us, so now my question for the panel is if truth was the biggest casualty of 2017. Still here at the table sally busby, john of a von and Joanne Lipman. John, in this choose your own news environment, do fact checks and corrections really break through . They should. They should. We need for fact checks and rea