Alternative Facts, Fake News: How Donald Trump’s False Claims Could Jeopardize Free Press

Top priorities on President Donald Trump’s to-do list immediately surfaced in recent after celebrating his inauguration on Friday: scaling back Barack Obama’s legacy through a series of repeals and executive orders on the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, and establishing clear battle lines with the American press.

Trump embarked on a campaign to delegitimize the media’s inauguration reporting during his first visit as POTUS to the Central Intelligence Agency Saturday, when he falsely claimed crowd sizes for his Friday event were several times larger than they actually were. White House press secretary Sean Spicer continued the administration’s press assault that same day, going so far as to claim Trump’s inauguration was "the largest audience to ever witness and inauguration – period – both in person and around the globe."

The pointed accusations claiming the media was deliberately misleading the American public on an issue as minor as crowd sizes has prompted concerns throughout the press about its relationship with the new administration.

Many reporters are fearing what could happen when the White House addresses more imperative matters, from climate change to data-driven reports like unemployment rates. Spicer’s first meeting with the press also followed reports the White House could enact major changes regarding its relationship with the press, with reports the administration is considering removing all future press briefings from the White House and debating whether those important meetings should take place as frequently as in under most recent administrations.

Trump could also continue to blame the media for his scuffles with government agencies, as he did on Saturday. "I have a running war with the media," Trump plainly stated during his meeting with the CIA on Saturday. "They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth, and they sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community."

The administration has justified its falsehoods, with Trump’s senior advisor Kellyanne Conway telling "Meet The Press" anchor Chuck Todd that Spicer was simply presenting "alternative facts," warning him not to be "so overly dramatic about it."

Conway’s statement undermines a crucial tenet of a journalist: to seek out the truth in all aspects, while holding those in power accountable for their actions and remarks. Whether continued clashes between the White House and the Fourth Estate will have lasting implications on the pair’s important relationship remains to be seen.

Famed TV news reporter Dan Rather summed up his concerns for the next administration in a viral Facebook post Sunday, writing "extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures."

"When you have a press secretary in his first appearance before the White House reporters threaten, bully, lie, and then walk out of the briefing room without the cajones to answer a single question, when you have a President stand before the stars of the fallen CIA agents and boast about the size of his crowds (lies) and how great his authoritarian inaugural speech was….These are not normal times," Rather wrote. "What can we do? We can all step up and say simply and without equivocation. 'A lie, is a lie, is a lie!' And if someone won't say it, those of us who know that there is such a thing as the truth must do whatever is in our power to diminish the liar's malignant reach into our society."