I was walking in downtown Springfield last summer when there was religious event happening at the MassMutual center. A young couple who was attending the event was walking along with me and started a conversation.

They wanted to know about my relationship with Jesus. We talked a moment and the husband asked me my line of work. I told him I was a newspaper guy. He told me he was a police officer.

I said to him I think we have something in common. He asked what was that and I said, “No one likes us until they need us.”

He laughed and agreed.

I have long realized the press is often seen as the bad guy by various institutions, politicians, religious organizations and others. They like to claim the press is biased against their opinions, the press agitates people into actions they shouldn’t take and the press delivers messages harmful to the status quo.

There have always been critics of the press, and criticism is good. The American press has had a long history and much of it isn’t great. The idea of an objective press is a 20th century concept and it’s a difficult one to manage as subjective decisions are made all the time.

What story is put on the front cover is one such subjective opinion as well as what stories to cover is another.

Nobody wants to see news that are potentially damaging to his or herself. I understand that. I also understand the press is a human institution and is fallible. We make mistakes. Sometimes it’s a typo, sometimes it’s a fact.

In the last 50 years or so the press has often been the subject of hate from the political establishment. President Lyndon Johnson I’m sure had little love for the press that covered the Vietnam War. President Richard Nixon certainly didn’t like the press as they uncovered Watergate.

In the secret tapes Nixon made he said, “Never forget, the press is the enemy. The press is the enemy. The press is the enemy.”

Nixon never made such a charge publicly.

Recently though criticism of the press has turned into outright hate. We now have a president who has repeatedly criticized the press, even though through his career he had fostered relationships with reporters and editors to further his goals.      

After his summit with Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, he tweeted, “So funny to watch the Fake News, especially NBC and CNN. They are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea. 500 days ago they would have ‘begged’ for this deal – looked like war would break out. Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!”

It’s not the first time he has called elements of the media “the enemy of the American people.”

Like many elected officials, the president likes reporters and news outlets that favor his positions and initiatives. That’s a rather predictable reaction.

What isn’t as predictable is the tone of the rhetoric he uses – it’s not criticism, it’s an attack.

It would not be fair or right or responsible to draw a line from the tone the president of the United States has established to the latest mass shooting this time at a newspaper in Maryland.

As far as I can see there has been no action-reaction relationship.

According to the reports from the newspaper itself, the shooter was someone who had lost a lawsuit against the newspaper. Whether or not he was motivated in any way by outside influences is impossible to say at this time.

I will say, though, the level of violence in this nation continues to increase, as does the idea the press is a leftist entity bent on the destruction of American ideals.

As usual the president did not address the nature of the violence but issued his standard “thoughts and prayers” statement. “Prior to departing Wisconsin, I was briefed on the shooting at Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Thank you to all of the First Responders who are currently on the scene.”

Yup. That was easy.

The social progress this country has made is crumbling around us. People of color are not safe. Women still are facing discrimination and harassment. School kids are not safe in their school.

Instead of trying to villainize the press, it would be refreshing if the president and his supporters actually sought solutions to the issues that endanger so many of our citizens. At this time of year when so people celebrate the freedoms this country offers, it would be wonderful if they actually sought to protect and strengthen those freedoms.