"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter."
The Founding Fathers were using single shot muskets that took time to load.
Democracy/Freeedom haters and underminers allow AR15 assault guns to be in teenage hands......when childrens bodies are indentified by they shoes.....they send thoughts and prayers.
Thanks, WJB. I use the "ID via high tops" occasionally when discussing the horrors of gun violence; inevitably, one of my MAGAt acquaintances will say "Huh?"
Cherry picking Jefferson out of context to authorize your biases is dishonest. In the quote you mangle and misappropriate, you misrepresent Jefferson's meaning - which he makes clear in the parts you left out. Jefferson was writing explicitly of government protections for freedom of speech and government limitations on censorship of newspapers - and also by implication in support of government funded public education.
The full quote:
"The people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty. The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs throтАЩ the channel of the public papers, & to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people. 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 & be capable of reading them."
тАЬevery man should receive these papers and be capable of reading themтАЭ
Implication: since newspapers are nearly dead because their business model is dead, we need a тАЬnews voucherтАЭ program so every citizen has a little money to buy access to legitimate news
That is a stretch. I would suggest a more clear reading - 'that every man be capable of receiving papers' means that government limit its power to censor the news and 'that every man be capable of reading them' means government investment in literacy.
But the point I'm "stretching" for is that Jefferson clearly counted on the press being capable of reaching the citizens. I think it is safe to argue that the primary press does not reach much of our population. At least not the way it did for most of my life (as a side effect of the advertising function). Is that a problem? I suspect it is. Certainly, the journalism profession seems to think so.
Would a press voucher help? Maybe. Worth discussion, I think.
And, or course, I'm sure he would be in favor of literacy.
We also cannot count on the press to get the message out. They have their own agenda and it has nothing to do with responsibly covering this election.
"Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter."
Thomas Jefferson
The Founding Fathers envisioned things differently than they are turning out.
The Founding Fathers were using single shot muskets that took time to load.
Democracy/Freeedom haters and underminers allow AR15 assault guns to be in teenage hands......when childrens bodies are indentified by they shoes.....they send thoughts and prayers.
Thanks, WJB. I use the "ID via high tops" occasionally when discussing the horrors of gun violence; inevitably, one of my MAGAt acquaintances will say "Huh?"
Cherry picking Jefferson out of context to authorize your biases is dishonest. In the quote you mangle and misappropriate, you misrepresent Jefferson's meaning - which he makes clear in the parts you left out. Jefferson was writing explicitly of government protections for freedom of speech and government limitations on censorship of newspapers - and also by implication in support of government funded public education.
The full quote:
"The people are the only censors of their governors: and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institution. To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safeguard of the public liberty. The way to prevent these irregular interpositions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs throтАЩ the channel of the public papers, & to contrive that those papers should penetrate the whole mass of the people. 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 & be capable of reading them."
Thomas Jefferson
The full letter:
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-11-02-0047
тАЬevery man should receive these papers and be capable of reading themтАЭ
Implication: since newspapers are nearly dead because their business model is dead, we need a тАЬnews voucherтАЭ program so every citizen has a little money to buy access to legitimate news
That is a stretch. I would suggest a more clear reading - 'that every man be capable of receiving papers' means that government limit its power to censor the news and 'that every man be capable of reading them' means government investment in literacy.
Stretch? Maybe so.
But the point I'm "stretching" for is that Jefferson clearly counted on the press being capable of reaching the citizens. I think it is safe to argue that the primary press does not reach much of our population. At least not the way it did for most of my life (as a side effect of the advertising function). Is that a problem? I suspect it is. Certainly, the journalism profession seems to think so.
Would a press voucher help? Maybe. Worth discussion, I think.
And, or course, I'm sure he would be in favor of literacy.