' 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 really look with commiseration over the great body of my
fellow-citizens, who, reading newspapers, live and die in the belief,
that they have known something of what has been passing in the world in
their time; whereas the accounts they have read in newspapers are just
as true a history of any other period of the world as of the present,
except that the real names of the day are affixed to their fables.
General facts may indeed be collected from them, such as that Europe is
now at war, that Bonaparte has been a successful warrior, that he has
subjected a great portion of Europe to his will, &c. &c.; but no details
can be relied on. 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 and errors. He who reads nothing will still learn the great
facts, and the details are all false.
Pages:
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142