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February 21, 2017
(Speech and Press): Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell
It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more compleatly deprive the nation of it's benefits, than is done by it's abandoned prostitution to falsehood.Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. I really look with commiseration over the great body of my fellow citizens, who, reading newspapers, live & die in the belief, that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in their time; whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are just as true a history of any other period of the world as of the present, except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables. General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful warrior, that he has subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, &c., &c.; but no details can be relied on. I will add, that 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 & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false. - - Amendment I
Posted by gerardvanderleun at February 21, 2017 9:55 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
See: Gell-Mann Amnesia effect.
Posted by: OldFert at February 21, 2017 1:40 PM
I no longer read newspapers. But they are handy to start the wood burning stove in my shop.
Posted by: Terry at February 21, 2017 2:47 PM
If the communists hijack the press is that better or worse than suppression?
Posted by: ghostsniper at February 21, 2017 5:27 PM
It is an axiom of political science in the United States that the only means of neutralizing the effects of newspapers is to multiply their numbers. I cannot imagine why such a self-evident truth should have not have become more commonly held in Europe--Tocqueville
The great difference is that now the media is 100% owned by Progressives and people who pretend they are not Progressives.
Posted by: james wilson at February 21, 2017 5:28 PM
Just saw a recent clip of an interview with actor Denzel Washington. In it he says, "He who does not read the papers is uninformed. He who does read the papers is misinformed." I'm sure he's quoting someone else, but it's great to hear a Hollywood denizen say that to the press.
Posted by: Grizzly at February 21, 2017 8:20 PM