It is a tried-and-true tradition among editorial writers: When struggling to articulate a particular thought, search for a quote from Thomas Jefferson. After all, he probably said it better than we mere mortals ever could.
So it is that, on the occasion of The Columbian’s 125th anniversary (see the special section in today’s newspaper), we bring you this gem from the man who was the third president of the United States: “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.” While we often confuse our latters with our formers, that means that Jefferson believed newspapers were more essential to a thriving democracy than government. We think.
After all, there is a profound reason behind the fact that the First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Notice the inclusion of “the press”? Since the founding of this nation, a free press has been viewed as an important tool for keeping the government in check.
Of course, newspapers and newspapering have changed since Jefferson’s time. In 1783, the Pennsylvania Evening Press became the nation’s first daily paper, and soon all the major cities had one — or several. New York City still boasts of 21 daily papers, some of them free and many of them published in foreign languages, speaking to the diversity of the nation’s largest city. All of those newspapers are part of a vast and growing and evolving media landscape, embracing the news-of-the-moment immediacy of Facebook and Twitter while still providing the kind of in-depth reporting that is rarely available on the Internet and never available on the television.
