From the NYT: So this, our 241st birthday, seems just the time to invite some of our forebears to remind us — including those at the top of the government — why a free press is so important.
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” — Benjamin Franklin, 1722
“There is nothing so fretting and vexatious, nothing so justly terrible to tyrants, and their tools and abettors, as a free press.” — Samuel Adams, 1768
“The freedom of speech may be taken away — and, dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to the slaughter.” — George Washington, to officers of the Army, 1783
“Nothing could be more irrational than to give the people power, and to withhold from them information without which power is abused. A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.” — James Madison, 1822
“There is a terrific disadvantage not having the abrasive quality of the press applied to you daily, to an administration. Even though we never like it, and even though we wish they didn’t write it, and even though we disapprove, there still isn’t any doubt that we couldn’t do the job at all in a free society without a very, very active press.” — John F. Kennedy, 1962
“Since the founding of this nation, freedom of the press has been a fundamental tenet of American life. There is no more essential ingredient than a free, strong and independent press to our continued success in what the founding fathers called our ‘noble experiment’ in self-government.’” — Ronald Reagan, 1983
“Power can be very addictive, and it can be corrosive. And it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.” — George W. Bush, 2017