News By The President And For The President?

This past week, President Trump launched a "Real News" series on his Facebook page. Apparently, it will be a regular web series giving viewers the "real news" that mainstream media outlets supposedly aren't covering. That said, the most recent episode featured stories that, in fact, were covered by major media outlets.

This isn't the first time President Trump has used social media in a fashion unheard of for past presidents. He is already infamous for his reliance on Twitter, sometimes as a replacement for traditional presidential modes of communication like press releases.

While presidents and politicians in the modern age have always used websites and news highlighting their achievements to promote themselves, it is unusual for a president to create his own news series (the most recent episode was hosted by Lara Trump, the president's daughter-in-law). A major part of the media's job is to keep the public informed of government affairs, and thus (ideally) to keep the government honest in doing so. A president who reports on himself defeats the purpose, totally disregarding the separation of press and state. It's not really surprising, given that President Trump has made countless decisions in his presidency thus far that have been unconventional to say the least. What remains to be seen is whether many people will choose to watch this "Real News" web series and whether they'll see the conflict of interest as a problem.