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Would it be such a threat to our constitution & the PRIVELEGES it extends to the nation's information providers they be expected to tell the truth??

The press has always lied. If you look at what the press printed about Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison for example, you would see that the founders gave the press the right to lie. The press printed terrible lies about all of the founders. Inspite fo the abuses, the founders gave the press teh right to lie.

The founders believed it was better to have a press that was free to lie,rather than a government powerful enough to stop them from lying.

"The press has always lied. If you look at what the press printed about Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison for example, you would see that the founders gave the press the right to lie. The press printed terrible lies about all of the founders. Inspite fo the abuses, the founders gave the press teh right to lie." "The founders believed it was better to have a press that was free to lie, rather than a government powerful enough to stop them from lying."

You're right on that account, I'm wrong, & that's that.
It's a mighty bitter pill (for me) to swallow, though.
Brings into my mind the lyric of an old song...

"Turn the Earth to sand, and still commit no crime."

Our constitutionally gaurenteed "freedoms" of course, mean many different things, to many different people.
Included would be the freedom to destroy ourselves, comes immediately to mind.

...& helplessly standing by, watching it happen isn't easy to do.

The press has always lied. If you look at what the press printed about Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison for example, you would see that the founders gave the press the right to lie. The press printed terrible lies about all of the founders. Inspite fo the abuses, the founders gave the press the right to lie.

The founders believed it was better to have a press that was free to lie,rather than a government powerful enough to ~~stop them from lying~~ impose its version of "truth" on the people.

There was no way of determining a priori who would know and speak the truth. Which is the fallacy of FCC licensing of certain people to broadcast "in the public interest", and FCC censorship of we-the-people. It is the difference between the right to speak (and derivitive right to listen) in the First Amendment, and the right to shut up and listen as promulgated by the FCC.