Jefferson: "Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. The extent of this misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day. I look with commiseration over my fellow citizens who live & die in the belief that…

63  2016-03-22 by daddie_o

...…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."

That was in 1807. As true then as it is today. Plus ça change...

3 comments

7  mvfc76 2016-03-22

The rubbish and mis-information in the msinstream media these days is mind boggling. It's a symptom of how desperate the 'establishment' are of trying tondistract people's attention from the underlying causes of the real issues out there i.e. unemployment, income inequality etc etc

3  November9NaziCoup 2016-03-22

"The only security of all is in a free press." Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823. ME 15:491

"Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe." - Thomas Jefferson

"The press is the best instrument for enlightening the mind of man, and improving him as a rational, moral and social being." -- Thomas Jefferson

"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." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787. ME 6:57

If OP's quote is true, then nothing is real, including the source of OP's quote.

0  daddie_o 2016-03-22

No, actually it's quite possible that although Jefferson recognized the value of a free, independent press, he realized that the newspapers of the day were anything but free and independent. Just like today. It may have even been that back in 1787 when he wrote to Edward Carrington, he thought that there were free and independent newspapers. But by 1807 he seems to have changed his opinion. People do that sometimes. As Emerson wrote:

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

It's interesting, because I remembered the quotation I posted hazily and as I started trying to google it, all I came across were quotes like the ones you posted. I think it's telling what the mainstream chooses to cite as notable quotations.