". . . he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him." - Jefferson
Posted on 01/17/2018 9:11:47 AM PST by Architect of Avalon
President Trump does not seem to understand that his rhetoric and actions reverberate in the same way.
He has threatened to continue his attempt to discredit the free press by bestowing “fake news awards” upon reporters and news outlets whose coverage he disagrees with.
Whether Trump knows it or not, these efforts are being closely watched by foreign leaders who are already using his words as cover as they silence and shutter one of the key pillars of democracy.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
There is absolutely nothing wrong with disagreement with the press. It’s not like they don’t have an option to speak for themselves. Now imagine if the press called any group x of people pure evil...
Mr. President, stop attacking the press
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Mr. McCain, stop breathing.
McShame needs to quit LIFE!
Thomas Jefferson's views on the importance of a free press are well known. Nevertheless, Jefferson was well aware of the dark under belly of a segment of the press which might set itself up, as he called it, "to serve the ministers" of a "despotic government.""Nothing is so mistaken as the supposition, that a person is to extricate himself from a difficulty, by intrigue, by chicanery, by dissimulation, by trimming, by an untruth, by an injustice. This increases the difficulties ten fold; and those who pursue these methods, get themselves so involved at length, that they can turn no way but their infamy becomes more exposed. It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world’s believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions." - See "Letter to Peter Carr, August 19, 1785," in Thomas Jefferson: Writings (New York: The Library of America, 1984), pp. 814-815.". . . he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him." - Jefferson
Note that in the last of the following quotations on the subject, Jefferson noted, "But the fact being once established, that the press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood," he declared, "I leave to others to restore it to its strength by recalling it within the pale of truth."
"[A despotic] government always [keeps] a kind of standing army of newswriters who, without any regard to truth or to what should be like truth, [invent] and put into the papers whatever might serve the ministers. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper." --Thomas Jefferson to G. K. van Hogendorp, Oct. 13, 1785. (*) ME 5:181, Papers 8:632"[I have seen] repeated instances of the publication of what has not been intended for the public eye, and the malignity with which political enemies torture every sentence from me into meanings imagined by their own wickedness only... Not fearing these political bull-dogs, I yet avoid putting myself in the way of being baited by them, and do not wish to volunteer away that portion of tranquillity, which a firm execution of my duties will permit me to enjoy." --Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807. ME 11:226
"Conscious that there was not a truth on earth which I feared should be known, I have lent myself willingly as the subject of a great experiment, which was to prove that an administration, conducting itself with integrity and common understanding, cannot be battered down even by the falsehoods of a licentious press, and consequently still less by the press as restrained within the legal and wholesome limits of truth. This experiment was wanting for the world to demonstrate the falsehood of the pretext that freedom of the press is incompatible with orderly government. I have never, therefore, even contradicted the thousands of calumnies so industriously propagated against myself. But the fact being once established, that the press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood, I leave to others to restore it to its strength by recalling it within the pale of truth. Within that, it is a noble institution, equally the friend of science and of civil liberty." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Seymour, 1807. ME 11:155
It sure is taking it's sweet time.
McCain IS NO Thomas Jefferson. McCain so hopes to have some sort of decent legacy, but he will be forever remembered as the Republican who really was a Democrat.
Mr. President, stop attacking the DNC.
Give in to the enemy just like you did Johnny boy?
7. President Trump has superpowers.
8. Does not give a sh!t what the press thinks of him or his policies.
9. Best president ever!
If he did take his senate seat with him when he died, Ted Kennedy would take it away from him.
There was a time when the “free press” was the citizenry’s best government watchdog. They investigated and exposed corruption and anti-citizen and anti-American political action for the people. The people trusted the patriotic, pavement pounding soldiers of liberty. They were regarded as our best defense against a tyrannical government. But that has changed.
Today, the media is little more than a propaganda arm of the tyrannical liberal proponents of an all powerful centralized government. It’s not the president that doesn’t trust or respect the MSM. It’s the people. The president is simply reflecting the feelings and opinions of the citizens that voted for him.
Brain cancer = brain damage.
McQueeg should be removed from office if he doesn’t have the decency to resign.
When he dies the Governor will appoint another Bush League Republican to secure the amnesty vote.
Any idea if people in Arizona managed to get upset over there two employees today?
Republican who really was a Democrat.
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Undocumented Democrat is the term coined by Grampa Dave.
There are lots of them.
Most of the elected GOP Senators are Bush League Republicans. We need a thorough housecleaning in both Houses.
Alexander, Corker, Flake, Graham, Hatch, Heller, Hoeven, Murkowsky, McCain, Rubio, Gardner, Burr, Tillis, Portman, McConnell, Thune, Cornyn, Cochran, Isackson, Blunt, Johnson, Toomey, Capito, Kennedy, Rounds, Fischer, Collins, Wicker, Sasse, Ernst, Lankford, Young, Boozman and Shelby are all undocumented Democrats in R jerseys.
Well said.
John....... you’ve crashed and burned. alas, You can’t just fade away
Who shot some adrenaline into North Viet John McCain/
The very notion of free speech and a free press is that it is two-directional. People and the press are generally free to say and print what they want and the people are free to criticize them.
If you can’t criticize the press then you may as well be in a communist regime.
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