An ode to the journalists I know (and even the ones I don’t)

This column begins with a disclaimer: Although I served on staff at the Alligator during the past year, I have never claimed to be a journalist. I pulled some long nights with my fellow editors, I helped writers revise their ledes, and I wrote many a headline in my time — but I’ve never gone out and gotten the scoop or snapped the photograph. With that said, I believe my outsider-turned-insider perspective might shed some light on the hard work your local journalists — and their counterparts around the globe — do each day to get the story and get the story right.

With the White House engaging in a full-on brawl against the press, some might forget a few key features of all journalists: 1. They are human beings, just like you and me (though perhaps a bit more caffeinated), and 2. they serve an important role in holding governments accountable. You’re just going to have to take my word for it on the first claim there. In my time working at the Alligator, I met all kinds of wonderful human beings who loaded up on coffee to balance the workload of daytime academia and nighttime journalism.

As for the latter claim, I can provide some supportive evidence from our very own White House press secretary, Sean Spicer. In fact, back in December, Jake Sherman of Politico asked Spicer about the treatment of the press under the Trump administration, to which Spicer replied, “I think we have a respect for the press when it comes to the government, that that is something you can’t ban an entity from. You know, conservative, liberal, otherwise, I think that is what makes a democracy a democracy versus a dictatorship.”

On Friday, however, Spicer blocked several news outlets, including CNN, BBC and The New York Times, from attending a press briefing. A democracy versus a dictatorship indeed, Mr. Spicer.

In barring certain members of the press access to this briefing, Spicer blatantly and maliciously ignored that key feature of all journalists: their hugely impactful job in holding governments, namely our democracy, accountable. During his campaign, President Donald Trump routinely refused to grant particular outlets, including The Washington Post, press credentials for weeks on end. This was already a ridiculous attack on the press and an action extremely unbecoming of a presidential candidate.

Now, Trump and his staff have gone a step further, waging a war with our very right to access the facts of the executive branch of our federal government. This cannot be tolerated. Journalists go to the places we can’t always visit and ask the hard-hitting questions that most need answers. Journalists grant us a road to the truth. An administration that cannot fathom the importance of facts — no, not the alternative kind — is ignorant, irresponsible and incompetent.

At the local level, I have seen the enduring strength of journalists, reporters, photographers, editors and everyone in between. I have watched them struggle with the most difficult topics and revel in the good news (and maybe a cute puppy picture or two). I have seen tears. I have felt hugs. I have gripped their hands as we watched election results trickle in and then pour, and I have watched them dedicate hours upon hours to getting the stories exactly as they happened. The bottom line is this: I have seen them work. And that is exactly what this democracy needs.

Mia Gettenberg is a UF criminology and law and philosophy junior. Her column appears on Mondays.