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Keller @ Large: Why We All Need The Media

BOSTON (CBS) - On and on it goes, the relentless demonization of the news media for political purposes. Throughout American history there's always been an adversarial relationship between politicians and the press. But sometimes it seems it's all president-elect Trump wants to talk about.

At his press conference Wednesday, Trump was in rare form, praising some reporters for covering his alleged entanglements with Russia to his liking, calling out and shunning others who did not. And the truth is, a politician who wants to make the media the issue will always have plenty of fodder to work with. The decision by Buzzfeed to publish vile, unverified allegations against Trump deserves scorn. When news outlets make big mistakes, mangle the facts or don't try hard enough to be fair, they leave themselves open to attack.

But here's a hard truth that reflexive media-haters won't like but have to swallow - we desperately need the media to keep politicians honest and protect us from their lapse, always have and always will.

If it wasn't for the work of a couple of junior Washington Post reporters, we might never have known that the President of the United States was conspiring to commit illegal acts and cover them up.

bernstein-woodward
Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Carl Bernstein (L) and Bob Woodward. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

We might never have known that another president was a sexual predator, using a public payroll to stash his girlfriend on the side.

Bill Clinton And Monica Lewinsky
A photograph showing Monica Lewinsky meeting then-President Bill Clinton at a White House event submitted as evidence in documents by the Starr investigation and released by the House Judiciary committee Sept. 21, 1998. (credit: White House/Getty Images)

And beyond politics, we would surely never have learned the extent of the Catholic Church pedophile priest scandal.

Cardinal Bernard Law
Defense attorney Mitchell Garabedian questions Cardinal Bernard Law at an evidentiary hearing involving defrocked priest John Geoghan at Suffolk Superior Court August 2, 2002 in Boston. (Photo by George Martell-Pool/Getty Images)

If you don't care about the truth, fine, go ahead and demonize the media.

But how many of you really don't care about the truth?

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