COLUMBUS, Ohio -- President Donald Trump revels in an antagonistic relationship with journalists -- so much so that Stephen Bannon, his chief White House strategist, labeled the media as "the opposition party" during a recent New York Times interview.

The press, Bannon said, "should keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while."

Will this hostility trickle down to Trump's fellow Republicans in Ohio? Reporters who gathered here Wednesday for an Associated Press forum had a chance to ask several elected state officeholders and political leaders. State Auditor Dave Yost, a former newspaperman, was particularly thoughtful. New Ohio GOP Chairwoman Jane Timken, who won that job with help from Trump, was particularly skeptical. But no one resorted to Trump-level combativeness.

The conversation started during a panel discussion with Attorney General Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Jon Husted, both of whom are considering runs for governor in 2018, and Yost, who is running for attorney general. Randy Ludlow, a Columbus Dispatch reporter, thanked the trio for their "willingness to appear before the opposition party" and asked if they view the vilification of the media and the rise of "fake news" as a threat to democracy.

Here is what they had to say.

Yost: First of all, I want to have a caveat that what I call the 'coastal legacy media' is very different than the working media in most of the country. Some of the criticism that has come from the president and others of some of those actors is well-founded. When people in the media abandon their role of observer and voluntarily adopt the role of actor in the system, become a player ... it denigrates the tradition and the value of the press in a free society.

So my message to the working press, the people in this room ... please don't go tribal. Please don't assume that everything that's said out there is an attack on you and going full bore. ... The press is not obsolete. The media are not obsolete. Freedom of the press is bedrock.

Yost then redirected his focus to conservative Republicans.

The criticism -- the microscopic nitpicking that goes on -- is destructive. The fact of the matter is that a conservative is distrustful of power, or ought to be. ... Who do you think is going to tell you what's going on and the stuff that the people in power don't what you to know if it's not for the press? ... We need an independent, free, robust press that's willing to ask difficult questions, demand answers, to dive in and do the hard work of going through bankers' boxes worth of public records to draw out the truth of what's going on. And we need to support that freedom of the press. Without that and without a robust working press, democracy doesn't work and we're right in the middle of George Orwell's dystopian vision of the future.

DeWine: We all I think view life through our own experiences. I have had dealings with most of you all and with people in the news media for many, many, many years. By and large they've been good relationships, professional relationships. I have a great deal of respect for what you all do. Just to add a little personal comment: Our youngest daughter, Anna, is a reporter.

Husted: I know that sometimes there are things that people will call and say that our office did this or our office did that, and we have to check it out, find out what the facts are. But let's face it, if you wait two hours, every story that you post has been tweeted and retweeted out there and could have inaccurate information out there, and then the next person takes it and turns it into the next story, and then it becomes ... fact in people's minds even though it's not the truth.

One of the things that I faced last fall during the election was the national story with which we had a flurry of social media hits that people were sending our way on whether there were boxes of ballots stashed away at the Franklin County Board of Elections that had been pre-marked for Hillary Clinton just waiting to be unleashed on the world on election night if the election was close. And it was done by somebody who alleged to be from the Christian Times. This had become an Internet legend in a matter of an hour or two. Literally, I got emails from people all over the country -- like reasonable people that I know first-hand that said, 'Gee is this true?' And so we had to spend a couple of days trying to basically prove that this was just made up. ...

People are losing trust in the institution of the media, they're losing trust in the institution of the courts [and in] public officials. I think we all have a collective responsibility to do our best to rebuild that trust. ... In the end we're all instruments of democracy and freedom and government, and we all play our respective roles. The better we both do it, the better off the country will be.

During the next panel, with Timken and Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper, the Sandusky Register's Tom Jackson asked Timken if she agreed with the anti-media vitriol.

Timken: I think it's common knowledge that the coastal media has a very different approach than the local media. I am a firm believer in the right of a free press. That's why I'm here with all of you. I think that local reporters have better connections with what's going on on the ground. And I have great respect for that.

I think that comments about the press being the opposition party, I think that goes to an understanding that there was some unfair treatment of Republicans in a lot of the races in 2016. The press should be fair. I know you're tough. But be fair -- and that's my philosophy about that. ...

We do have good relationships, I think, with the press. But I think when the press starts taking their own personal biases into account and writing stories that reflect that bias, I think that can be troubling for a democratic process. But I do firmly believe in the right of a free press. That is fundamental to our democracy.

Pepper: It's downright bizarre to have someone in the White House call the press the opposition party. In the last month, I hope one thing Americans have learned ... is how important the press at all levels are to our democracy. The only check we have, especially in a time of one-party rule. ... The more this is happening ... the more we need all levels of the press to be robust. ...

I'm a big fan of local press. Not to pitch my [novel], but the narrator of my book is the Youngstown Vindicator political reporter, if that tells you anything. But the national press, as you all know, in some cases has more resources to do the kind of digging that it's going to take.

Gov. John Kasich, who at times has had a rocky relationship with the press, was not asked specifically about the "opposition party" comments but offered some thoughts on the state of the media during his hour-long session with reporters at the Associated Press forum.

Kasich: I very much appreciate the job that all of you do. I can tease you and kid you or whatever. But you're absolutely critical in this democratic process. Not, just of course here in this state, but in our nation. And sometimes it takes courage, and I recognize that.

Your profession is vital to us -- vital to our functioning as a society.

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