I’ve heard/read this quote:
Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter.
so many times in the past two weeks. Please STOP quoting Thomas Jefferson, especially as an argument.
First, quoting a smart historical figure’s anecdotal preference is hardly argumentative evidence. What happens if George Washington would have preferred government without newspapers? (I bet he would – that old one-party President!) – we would be at an impasse!
Second, newspapers in Jefferson’s time would be practically unrecognizable by today’s definition. What Jefferson meant was that he rather liked the idea of oligarchs and political parties printing lively, slanderous debate, and didn’t like it nearly as much when the Government called it libel (or told him what he could and couldn’t do – you know, laws and stuff).
So, for the sake of my own sanity, please stop using that quote as an argument that newspaper companies must be saved? Please?
/rant
Eat Sleep Publish is a Seattle-based blog that explores the difficulties and opportunities currently facing the publishing industry. 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Jefferson also said:
Seems to me like he might have liked Google – maybe even more than his newspapers.
What Jefferson would say today is: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without a free and open Internet for all or a free and open Internet for all without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter.”
Jefferson was a huge fan of the French Revolution. He preferred ideas to government. ALL ideas – freely flowing. He would LOVE the Internet.
Lol – true, and true.
Jill Lapore had a good piece in the New Yorker in January about the history of newspapers in the U.S. Here’s how she reports on Jefferson’s change of heart about the press: