It is a melancholy truth, that a suppression of the press could not more compleatly deprive the nation of it’s benefits, than is done by it’s 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.
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They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
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“If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” – variously attributed but true regardless of the origin.
Well who should one believe? Surely not Trump, who is well-know for making up “facts”. When pressed for a source his usual response is something vague such as “somebody told me”.
I submit that if you get all of your news from any single outlet, as Jabrwok implies, you are likely being misinformed. The person who thinks for himself draws information from several outlets and then makes up his own mind. (feel free to adjust gender as desired) The others? They are the sheep who believe whatever they are told by their favorite news outlet or authority figure.
Actually Thomas Jefferson wrote on both sides of this issue. So to Joel’s example I would add: “The basis of our governments 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 a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.” And: “Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe,”
The main issue with the media is, and has always been, a lack of accountability. Journalists want to be held in the same light as licensed doctors and lawyers but they don’t want the same degree of accountability. If a doctor is bad then he could loose his license to practice. But what of the reporter who slants a story to the point where lives are ruined? I live in Ontario Canada where a security guard is held to a higher standard than a reporter and that is wrong given the power the news media wields.
Mr. Jefferson, it should be “its”, not “it’s”. Both times. If “it is” doesn’t work, neither does “it’s”. A newspaper may lie, but should at least use words goodly.
Robert – I’m not so sure there was a Chicago Manual around back then. I’ll assume well-read and somewhat educated folk just had to wing it – then as always.
If you stumbled onto the original text in his own hand w/ signature at a garage sale for $10 – would you eschew it?
Thoreau on ‘news’ and ‘newspapers’ – “If you are acquainted with the principle, what do you care for a myriad instances and applications?”
Bierce addresses it indirectly:
“PILLORY, n. A mechanical device for inflicting personal distinction — prototype of the modern newspaper conducted by persons of austere virtues and blameless lives.”
It’s either all that (and more!) or one can squeeze all they can from “The medium is the message”.
The “headlines” once hawked on streetcorners by newsboys are now the stuff of internet clickbait.
“EXTRA, EXTRA . . . MAN BITES DOG . . . AND POLITICIAN KILLS BABIES!!”
PNO:
Good points. I now realize I was unconsciously assuming the apostrophes were added when someone (not Joel!) retyped the quote in order to put it on the interweb rather than being penned before folks settled on standard spelling. Picture me as Bart Simpson “I will not be a grammar nazi. I will not be a grammar nazi…”. Yes, n not N.