Apparently, a serious trust issue has developed between the American people and those of us who make our living reporting the news.

By and large, the job of journalist has always been a relatively thankless one — you know, “shoot the messenger” and all. However, what’s been happening in recent weeks feels … different.

There’s genuine peril in this false narrative being pushed that news outlets are deliberately making up stories out of whole cloth, that they are telling outright lies about the powerful people and organizations they cover, and that they have some nefarious objective other than simply informing the public and trying to stay afloat as a business.

Do journalists get things wrong? Sadly, yes. But the vast majority of these are honest mistakes. And in any event, inaccuracies have been — and always will be — the exception, not the norm.

But even when we don’t make a mistake per se, our stories can have unintended consequences.

Case in point: This past week, I wrote a story about a new Mazda dealership coming to Riverdale Road in South Ogden. I happened to interview one of the owners of the two businesses being displaced by the car lot, but not the other.

RELATED: New Mazda dealership to overtake furniture store, 6 homes in South Ogden

After the story was published, I got an email from that other owner, Kyle Jackson, of Abbey Carpet of Ogden at 4010 Riverdale Road. He said he’d received dozens of phone calls and emails from customers concerned the carpet store was going out of business.

For the record, Jackson said he’s remodeling the former Aspen Mills Bread Co. at 136 36th St., and Abbey Carpet will be moving there, probably in late August or early September.

“It would be greatly appreciated,” he wrote, “if in the future when you do another story on this subject to please remember to include all businesses involved.”

It’s a fair point, and one I’ll strive to remember.

Intent on building relationships with readers, the Standard-Examiner is currently participating in Trusting News, a project administered by the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

(If you’d like to offer your two cents on the subject, there are still a couple days left to fill out the survey.)

Ann Elise Taylor, news editor at the Standard-Examiner, is spearheading the project here locally. She says they’ve had more than 300 surveys completed and they’re in the process of setting up interviews with some of those people to explore the issue of trust.

“We’re trying to reach out to get feedback and show our readers why we are trustworthy,” Taylor said. “I think we are trustworthy, but we could explain the process better.”

Still, It’s an uphill climb when the most visible, powerful man in the world uses hyperbole and exaggeration to label the media “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people” — outright lies that are soon enough parroted by others.

And the president isn’t the only public figure pushing the worthless-journalism narrative, either. Terel Grimley, who just retired as general manager of Pineview Water Systems, has taken up the battle cry on the Standard-Examiner’s Facebook page, recently posting: “Your credibility with me is near ‘0’. After giving several interviews over the years with various reporters their ability to report accurately was dismal. They had to sensationalize a story rather than report basic facts. They are far from unbiased.”

Strong — if utterly vague — words from a man whose organization has occasionally found itself in an unflattering spotlight.

I remember interviewing Mr. Grimley a number of years ago. I don’t recall what the story was, but I don’t think it was very controversial. In any event, he never called either me or my editor to complain about “dismal” accuracy.

But perhaps Grimley is referring to our coverage of the mysteriously flooded basements two summers ago on Douglas Street and Polk Avenue in Ogden. Although the flooding started in late June, Grimley continued to insist it was “groundwater” until the middle of August when — oops! — it turns out it was indeed coming from a leak in a Pineview Water Systems-owned reservoir above the homes.

• RELATED: Leak in reservoir may be cause of Douglas Street flooding

• RELATED: State audit blisters water district’s response to Ogden flooding

The Standard-Examiner reported extensively on the flooding and the subsequent state audit that blistered the water system’s Weber-Box Elder Conservation District for: “Ineffective board governance and lack of accountability; Failure to effectively evaluate and identify the reservoir as the most likely cause of flooding; Lack of knowledge, skills, and expertise related to industry ‘best practices’; Inadequate systematic emergency response plan.”

Do you suppose this was what Grimley found “sensationalized”? Because if I’m one of those homeowners watching my basement fill up with water, you’d be hard-pressed to convince me that any news coverage could possibly be overblown.

We in the news media certainly have our problems, but the benefits of a free press far outweigh any disadvantages. And when someone like Donald Trump — or Terel Grimley — makes these blanket statements about how completely untrustworthy society’s watchdogs have become?

Please keep in mind the dogs they have in this fight.

Contact Mark Saal at 801-625-4272, or msaal@standard.net. Follow him on Twitter at @Saalman. Friend him on Facebook at facebook.com/MarkSaal.