Although the press conference — the first President-elect Donald Trump has hosted since November’s election — last Wednesday was ostensibly about how he plans to divest himself from his business empire as he prepares for his new job in the Oval Office, the headlines following the event had little to do with the subject.
Instead, most stories focused on Trump’s latest round of lambasting media outlets that have criticized him. In the firing line Wednesday was online news outlet Buzzfeed — labeled by Trump as “a failing pile of garbage” — and cable news stalwart CNN, who Trump proclaimed with the newest buzzword emerging from this year’s election cycle: “fake news.”
In an ironic twist of fate, the same talking heads that slapped the label of “fake news” on any TV station, publication or website that supposedly cost Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton the election lambasted and mocked Trump for using turning the cudgel against them.
With the incoming leader of the free world now openly using the term to deride the press corp intended to cover him and hold him to account, the hysteria surrounding “fake news” has quickly reached its sad yet inevitable climax.
It is time for everyone — the press, politicians and the people who support one and attack the other — to retire the phrase “fake news.”
For the past week, many news outlets have obsessed over an intelligence dossier, of questionable origins, which has been reportedly shared among top U.S. officials. Full of several salacious claims — and plenty of spelling errors and mistakes — the document is entirely unverifiable.
Even editors with the outlet that publicly shared the outlet, Buzzfeed, have admitted the authenticity and claims made document are questionable at best.
While journalists have a responsibility to be as open with their readers as possible, we have a responsibility to vet our sources and ensure their claims are credible. Otherwise, we are nothing but mere rumor mongers.
This responsibility is only enhanced, not alleviated, when it comes to reporting on the highest office in the land.
With Trump only days away from taking office, it is of paramount importance that the press continues to hold the incoming president to account, to report on his policies and behaviors in an objective but critical fashion.
However, we cannot do so without the trust of the public, and getting into tit-for-tat battles over who or what is “fake news” or focusing on outright lurid reports from questionable sources does little to improve our reputation.
Let us stop the obsession with fake news and focus on factual, honest reporting.

Opinions expressed are those of the editorial board consisting of General Manager Ambrosia Neldon and community editors Ted Yoakum and Scott Novak.