Eugene David<br>...The One-Minute Pundit

Posted 12:36 PM by Gene

THOMAS JEFFERSON ON THE PRESS:

"The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them."

--Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787.

"From forty years' experience of the wretched guess-work of the newspapers of what is not done in open daylight, and of their falsehood even as to that, I rarely think them worth reading, and almost never worth notice."

--Jefferson to James Monroe, 1816.

"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure."

--Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823.

"I deplore...the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them... These ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste and lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information and a curb on our funtionaries, they have rendered themselves useless by forfeiting all title to belief....This has, in a great degree, been produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit."

--Jefferson to Walter Jones, 1814.

"The press [is] the only tocsin of a nation. [When it] is completely silenced... all means of a general effort [are] taken away."

--Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, Nov 29, 1802.

"The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them, inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false."

--Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807.

"To preserve the freedom of the human mind... and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement."

--Jefferson to William Green Munford, 1799.

"Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper."

--Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, 1819.

"Our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it."

--Jefferson to John Jay, 1786.

"As for what is not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers."

--Jefferson to Barnabas Bidwell, 1806.

We should note that most of his huzzahs to the press date from before, and most of his boos date from after, a Jefferson flack named Callender, feeling slighted, "reported" that Jeff had had relations with a slave. One of the great Jefferson's unfortunate flaws was his ability to take multiple positions on any topic, and for that reason it is surprising the NEWS HACKS don't cite him more often. With L'Affaire Hemings he'd be the perfect spokesman.

P. S. Oh well, he DID say this:

"Weighing all probabilities of expense as well as of income, there is reasonable ground of confidence that we may now safely dispense with...the postage on newspapers...to facilitate the progress of information."

--Jefferson, First Annual Message, 1801.

Hear THAT, Wall Street Journals? Hear THAT, PINCH?

(A thank you to Eyler Robert Coates Sr. for having compiled this.)