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THOMAS JEFFERSON ON SINCLAIR BROADCASTING, DAN RATHER, AND GOD
Inaugural Address ^
| 1805
| Thomas Jefferson
Posted on 10/13/2004 9:31:50 AM PDT by Babwa
It is outrageous that the FCC should even be thinking about action against Sinclair Broadcasting for planning a news special based on the film, "Stolen Honor." We could ask where was the FCC all these years while CBS, ABC, and NBC dominated the airwaves with their one-sided views presented as news, but that is not constructive in a free society.
In a free society, we need a free press and the FCC should not be in the business of deciding who can and cannot speak. If broadcasters present fraudulent information, they should be held liable, in both the courts of legal and public opinion. The government should not be protecting the liberal media or persecuting the conservative media, but allowing the free market to deal with them. You might want to read Thomas Jefferson's 2nd Inauguration speech in which he devoted a major portion to how the government and society should respond to the scurrilous attacks in the press on Jefferson during his first term and re-election campaign where he states, "During this course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare."
His solution is to turn to state courts to prosecute fraudulent "news," but ultimately to depend on "the censorship of public opinion."
Also fascinating is Jefferson's concluding paragraph, where he asks for God's continued blessings in a way that would have today's secularists hating Jefferson more than Bush!
CONCLUSION OF THOMAS JEFERSON'S 2ND INAUGURAL ADDRESS IN 1804
"During this course of administration, and in order to disturb it, the artillery of the press has been leveled against us, charged with whatsoever its licentiousness could devise or dare. These abuses of an institution so important to freedom and science are deeply to be regretted, inasmuch as they tend to lessen its usefulness and to sap its safety. They might, indeed, have been corrected by the wholesome punishments reserved to and provided by the laws of the several States against falsehood and defamation, but public duties more urgent press on the time of public servants, and the offenders have therefore been left to find their punishment in the public indignation.
Nor was it uninteresting to the world that an experiment should be fairly and fully made, whether freedom of discussion, unaided by power, is not sufficient for the propagation and protection of truth—whether a government conducting itself in the true spirit of its constitution, with zeal and purity, and doing no act which it would be unwilling the whole world should witness, can be written down by falsehood and defamation. The experiment has been tried; you have witnessed the scene; our fellow-citizens looked on, cool and collected; they saw the latent source from which these outrages proceeded; they gathered around their public functionaries, and when the Constitution called them to the decision by suffrage, they pronounced their verdict, honorable to those who had served them and consolatory to the friend of man who believes that he may be trusted with the control of his own affairs.
No inference is here intended that the laws provided by the States against false and defamatory publications should not be enforced; he who has time renders a service to public morals and public tranquillity in reforming these abuses by the salutary coercions of the law; but the experiment is noted to prove that, since truth and reason have maintained their ground against false opinions in league with false facts, the press, confined to truth, needs no other legal restraint; the public judgment will correct false reasoning and opinions on a full hearing of all parties; and no other definite line can be drawn between the inestimable liberty of the press and its demoralizing licentiousness. If there be still improprieties which this rule would not restrain, its supplement must be sought in the censorship of public opinion.
Contemplating the union of sentiment now manifested so generally as auguring harmony and happiness to our future course, I offer to our country sincere congratulations. With those, too, not yet rallied to the same point the disposition to do so is gaining strength; facts are piercing through the veil drawn over them, and our doubting brethren will at length see that the mass of their fellow-citizens with whom they can not yet resolve to act as to principles and measures, think as they think and desire what they desire; that our wish as well as theirs is that the public efforts may be directed honestly to the public good, that peace be cultivated, civil and religious liberty unassailed, law and order preserved, equality of rights maintained, and that state of property, equal or unequal, which results to every man from his own industry or that of his father's. When satisfied of these views it is not in human nature that they should not approve and support them. In the meantime let us cherish them with patient affection, let us do them justice, and more than justice, in all competitions of interest; and we need not doubt that truth, reason, and their own interests will at length prevail, will gather them into the fold of their country, and will complete that entire union of opinion which gives to a nation the blessing of harmony and the benefit of all its strength.
I shall now enter on the duties to which my fellow-citizens have again called me, and shall proceed in the spirit of those principles which they have approved. I fear not that any motives of interest may lead me astray; I am sensible of no passion which could seduce me knowingly from the path of justice, but the weaknesses of human nature and the limits of my own understanding will produce errors of judgment sometimes injurious to your interests. I shall need, therefore, all the indulgence which I have heretofore experienced from my constituents; the want of it will certainly not lessen with increasing years. I shall need, too, the favor of that Being in whose hands we are, who led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land and planted them in a country flowing with all the necessaries and comforts of life; who has covered our infancy with His providence and our riper years with His wisdom and power, and to whose goodness I ask you to join in supplications with me that He will so enlighten the minds of your servants, guide their councils, and prosper their measures that whatsoever they do shall result in your good, and shall secure to you the peace, friendship, and approbation of all nations."
TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: danrather; freepress; sinclair; stolenhonor
1
posted on
10/13/2004 9:31:51 AM PDT
by
Babwa
To: Babwa
God protect America against its enemies, INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL.
2
posted on
10/13/2004 9:35:25 AM PDT
by
EagleUSA
(wh)
To: EagleUSA
Don't you mean IRRATIONAL and external?
Good post!
3
posted on
10/13/2004 9:41:52 AM PDT
by
jcb8199
To: Babwa
By the way, one of the main "falsehoods and defamations" Jefferson was referring to was the widely reported claim that he had an affair with his slave, Sally Hemmings. These stories never go away!
4
posted on
10/13/2004 9:45:11 AM PDT
by
Babwa
To: EagleUSA
MSM is compaining while making anti Bush comments on primtime shows. Gilmore Girls last night dissing Swiftboat Vets. Cold Case putting down National Guard and Bush's record. It's insane!
To: Babwa
6
posted on
10/13/2004 11:26:49 AM PDT
by
68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
(GET OUT THE VOTE NOV 2 ! IF YOUR NEIGHBORS OR RELATIVES NEED A RIDE TO THE POLLS OFFER TO HELP)
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