The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
The fading and folding of print journalism
“If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” — Thomas Jefferson
••• Around the world, print journalism bleeds. America’s Fourth Estate has plenty of company!
In England, 200 local newspapers have closed in the last 10 years. (London Times)
The impending closing of the Youngstown (Ohio) Vindicator is due to dire financial conditions that plague much of American print journalism. (Washington Post)
What would a Founding Father and America’s Third president named Thomas Jefferson think about what is happening in 2019?
This simple country man living with his beautiful wife in the remote Brookfield hills feels a highly unusual connection with the man who drafted the Declaration of Independence. The first great biography of Jefferson (three volumes) was completed in eight years and published just before the Civil War. It was of such great scholarship, it would stand the test of time well into the 20th century. The author of this seminal magnum opus, Henry S. Randall, was born in little Brookfield in 1811!
If this simple man could turn back the pages of American history and sit down and chat with Mr. Jefferson, one question, among many, would be about the press.
With no equivocation, Jefferson eloquently stressed the importance of a free and vibrant press to the health and well-being of democracy. With words I’d never forget, he eloquently and forcefully said (with a distinct pause between words):
“Our – liberty – depends- on - the – freedom – of – the – press – and – that – can – not – be – limited – without – being – lost.”
With a noticeable frown on his still handsome face, Mr. Jefferson asked “is it time?” I had to sadly say “yes.” “The media (press) is the enemy of the people.”
“And this is your President talking?”
“Yes,” I said.
Mr. Jefferson said in his time such utterances would only be from the lips of an ignorant madman, a candidate for a coating of hot tar lavishly festooned with feathers and a ride out of town on an uncomfortable rail. Such utter nonsense would be considered treasonable by patriots who had just fought and died for our freedom and independence, aided by newspapers in all the colonies.
“Don’t your people understand,” said Mr. Jefferson, “that a free and vibrant press is the protective cornerstone against such ignorance and danger to democracy, a unique system of government that the newspapers of my time did so much to help create?”
Jefferson went on to say he was so saddened to learn that seemingly many Americans will gladly give up their freedoms as they more comfortably wallow in ignorance and apathy with little direction. His generation bequeathed to later generations a spirit of democracy. That same spirit is alive and well with some Americans but dying in the hearts and minds of far too many. “Regardless, a free press must grow strong and vibrant once again as it was in my day.”
Mr. Jefferson got up from where we had been chatting. In leaving, he said “I’ll continue to watch what happens. Hopefully, sanity will return to your political process. Will divisions exist? Of course they existed in my day. A free press must salve divisiveness. Democracy, to endure, needs civility…”
With a final wave, he returned to the past. But these are only the musings of a simple country man.