Thomas Jefferson On The Fake News Media

"were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without 
newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment 
to prefer the latter."
- Thomas Jefferson, 1787

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited 
without being lost."
- Thomas Jefferson to Dr. J. Currie, 1786

"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 falsehood and errors." - Thomas Jefferson 1807, 20 years later

"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper.  Truth itself becomes 
suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle."
- Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, June 11, 1807


"The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first 
object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we 
should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I 
should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.  But I should mean that 
every man should receive those papers, and be capable fo reading them."
- Thomas Jefferson to Colonel Edward Carrington, January 16, 1787

"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 falsehood and errors."
- Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Seymour, and other citizens of Hartford, Feb. 11, 1807


"Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this.  Divide his 
paper into four chapters, heading the 1st, Truths.  2d, Probabilities.  3, 
Possibilities.  4th, Lies.  The first chapter would be very short."
- To John Norvell, June 11, 1807