Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Much has been made lately from a 38-second YouTube clip in which Donald Trump knocks "CNN" to the floor at WrestleMania 23.

In particular, the CNN staff seem to view this as an existential threat.

If the talking heads and executives at CNN took a look back to history, they would find that The Donald isn’t the first First Executive to disparage their profession. For example, the following quote —

"To your request of my opinion of the manner in which a newspaper should be conducted, so as to be most useful, I should answer, ‘by restraining it to true facts & sound principles only.’ Yet I fear such a paper would find few subscribers. It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more completely deprive the nation of its benefits, than is done by its abandoned prostitution to falsehood. Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.… I will add, that 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 falsehoods & errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false."
— Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Norvell (11 June 1807)

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

1. Ixquick search — Thomas Jefferson newspaper
2. Intellectual Takeout: Thomas Jefferson Had Some Issues with Newspapers by Daniel Lattier
3. The Washington Post — The Fix: Memo to Donald Trump: Thomas Jefferson invented hating the media by Lindsey Bever

Copyright © 2017 Mike Blessing. All rights reserved.