Another President & the Press

“Thomas Jefferson was as irritated with newspaper coverage as any public figure of his era. For all the talk of media bias today, it can't compare to the overt partisanship and personal attacks appearing in papers in our nation’s early years. 

“But Jefferson also knew that our democracy could only flourish with a free press that would keep an eye on people in power and help protect our freedoms.

“He understood that press coverage comes and goes, but freedom of the press must endure.”

—Ken Paulson, president of the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center, quoted in “Memo to Donald Trump: Thomas Jefferson invented hating the media,” The Washington Post, Feb. 18, 2019.

• Editorial Comment: The press must endure, and someone’s got to read it.

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Grasswirl

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