I've been thinking about it, and these sorts of things always have their roots somewhere. It just seems to be way far beyond any idea of normal for a newly-freed press to go vicious so quickly, when the only opposition they had was in the form of lost profit if another paper sold more than they did. To me, that translates to greed as the motive to write slander, but lots of businesses have competition and don't turn to slander to raise their bottom line. There was at least one more motive: McCullough goes into some detail about the newspaper wars between different factions and how, for example, Jefferson, while serving as Adams' Vice President, paid one newspaper to write against the policies of Adams, etc.
There is a lot more to this but I write this much to share what has come as news to me: this mess with the press started in Washington's first term, and by his second, it was completely out of hand. If problems are going to be fixed, they are usually best fixed by discovering their roots. That's why I've started asking God to show me how to pray for the root and stinkweed that flowed from it, at the birth of our nation, in the freely manipulated press.
The problem with the press is that they seem to consider it all a game. They are no longer just reporting on the issues but are always try to trap the President. It is a proverbial game of 'gotcha' ALL THE TIME. Sort of like yesterday when Fournier (from AP) starts out his question with, "have you failed Mr. President because Sharon did not pull out immediately?" ERRRRRR. It is just so sickening to watch. And the pack mentality is especially irritating. I love it when Rush does his montages of various press people spewing the same stuff out, ad nauseum. They all think they are so clever and original when, in fact, they are merely regurgitating (sp?) the same thing, ad infinitum.
Sometimes it totally amazes me that some of these journalists actually get paid to do what they do. Okay, end of rant. I shall pray for a free and unfettered press as well.