The media’s job is to inform the public. This is the gold standard for any journalist. So why did White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer center his very first press briefing around “alternative facts,” and why did Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to President Donald Trump, back him up?

Spicer stepped into the briefing room Saturday to state that Trump’s inauguration had the largest amount of viewers any inauguration had ever seen. Period. Something that simply wasn’t true. He didn’t answer a single question.

The National Park Service doesn’t provide an official inauguration crowd estimate, and the mayor’s office didn’t release an official estimate, like they did after President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. No one has the right answer as to how many people were at the capitol Friday.

Obama’s first inauguration drew a crowd of over 1.8 million. Trump called out a television network in a press conference Saturday that estimated only 250,000 were in attendance for his inaguration.

If we don’t have the trust of the press, we have nothing, and if the people don’t trust the press, we have even less. Three weeks ago, that is what Spicer believed. Why is he lying to the public to make his boss look good?

At the onset of his presidency, Trump hasn’t done a knockout job of ensuring truth — not as long as the term “alternative facts” is being pawned off as accurate journalism. Can we trust Spicer to inform the media and the public? Can the public trust the media? Maybe the question is, has the public ever been able to trust the media?

In this age of “alt facts” and falsehoods, it is important to remember that our stories must be airtight. As the expression goes, be critical of the media you love.

We cannot be afraid to express ourselves and make our voices heard, whether that is made possible through journalism or by taking to the streets.

While Spicer was lying to the faces of the public, millions of women took to the streets of Washington D.C. and hundreds of other cities to express their thoughts on women’s issues and other issues such as climate change and healthcare.

Vox estimated that more than 3.3 million marched in over 500 cities. Some media outlets have said this could have been the largest collective demonstration in U.S. History.

We at the Globe cannot confirm or deny this number. We can, however, guarantee that it was undoubtedly more than those present at the inauguration of President Trump.