By The Seattle Times editorial board
President Donald Trump, easily fending off his remaining challenger for the Republican nomination in Iowa and New Hampshire, continues to lob insults against media organizations covering the campaign.
While friction between presidents and the press are nothing new, President Trump often calls many respected news organizations “Fake News.” On this Presidents Day, we thought we’d offer some different views on the free press from some of Trump’s predecessors in a format the president enjoys.
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump … 2 years
The Fake News hates me saying that they are the Enemy of the People only because they know it’s TRUE. I am providing a great service by explaining this to the American People. They purposely cause great division & distrust. They can also cause War! They are very dangerous & sick! [4:38 a.m., Aug. 5, 2018]
Thomas Jefferson @SageOfMonticello … 204 years
… If a nation expects to be ignorant & free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty & property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free … all is safe. [Letter to Col. Charles Yancey, Jan. 6, 1816]
John Adams @OldSinkOrSwim … 240 years
The liberty of the press is essential to the security of the state. [Free-Press Clause, Massachusetts Constitution, 1780]
James Madison @LittleJemmy … 229 years
Whatever facilitates a general intercourse of sentiments, as good roads, domestic commerce, a free press and particularly a circulation of newspapers through the entire body of the people, and Representatives going from, and returning among every part of them, is equivalent to a contraction of territorial limits, and is favorable to liberty, where these may be too extensive. [“On Public Opinion,” Dec. 19, 1791]
George Washington @AmericanCincinnatus … 237 years
If men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences that can invite the consideration of mankind, reason is of no use to us, the freedom of speech may be taken away, and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. [Address to the offices of the Army, March 15, 1783]
John Quincy Adams @TheAbolitionist … 195 years
The freedom of the press should be inviolate. [Inaugural address, 1825]
Franklin Delano Roosevelt @ThatManInTheWhiteHouse … 82 years
The fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands, they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. If in other lands the eternal truths of the past are threatened by intolerance, we must provide a safe place for their perpetuation. [Speech, June 30, 1938]
Abraham Lincoln @HonestAbe … 155 years
Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe. [Reported in the Daily Intelligencer, 1865]
James A. Garfield @BoatmanJim … 142 years
Not for its own sake alone, but for the sake of society and good government, the press should be free. Publicity is the strong bond which unites the people and their government. Authority should do no act that will not bear the light. [Address before The Ohio Editorial Association, Cleveland, July 11, 1878]