To those who share fake news,

Our country is established and based on a series of checks and balances that prevent reverting back to our oppressive roots. We live our lives taking these checks, and the stability that our country has because of them, for granted. We live our lives day after day watching tv, reading articles, tweets, and so much more without realizing that we are actively forgetting about the most important check of all: the press, the fourth estate.

We live in a society where interaction is at our fingertips; scroll down any social media and see countless news articles. Anyone and everyone can be reached in a matter of seconds, making news media wholeheartedly revolutionary. For most of the internet’s existence, this has been beneficial to the fourth estate. This has become a fundamental element of the fourth check. Knowledge is the key to avoiding oppression. So what do we do when our sources of knowledge become discredited? When our knowledge turns to rumors, assumptions, and falsehoods plastered on Facebook walls, Twitter timelines, and the minds of the public?

Journalists spend day after day uncovering the truth, keeping the public informed while doing their best to maintain their validity, yet lately the legitimacy of this act has been discredited by a simple share of something completely false.

I’m talking to you, the one that shares fake news, even without even realizing it.

What ever happened to the credibility of sources, forming your own opinions and striving to live by the truth? As a society we have thrown that out the window without even realizing how it’s crippling us.

Opinion should be based on facts. Facts take work and the ability to uncover right from wrong, rumor from truth. Yet rumor has become truth far too often recently.

Our society has turned from a group of individuals striving to rid ourselves of oppression to a group of individuals who are inviting it in.

We need to remember the fourth check with all that we have, the check that keeps the public involved, the check that truly works for us no matter who you are, where you come from or what you believe. This means reading and checking the validity of an article or tweet, and everything that could possibly compromise it. An entire profession is being discredited by individuals and groups of people who take for granted the freedom they have been given. The freedom of the press is the ability to acknowledge and find oppression, even when our government neglects to see it. Maintaining this is not a partisan issue, but a humanitarian issue that is absolutely necessary in preserving our democracy.

We are a land of the people, by the people and for the people.

Fact has no political party, race, religion, or bias. It is our duty to find these facts and use them to protect ourselves.

The only way we can maintain our freedoms is by using them responsibly. By finding the truth, and not just something that we agree with.