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“The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.” – Thomas Jefferson

One of the most insightful ways to view modern media is through the perspective of history. Throughout the history of journalism, new distribution methods - radio, TV, and now the Internet – have changed the way the news is distributed and consumed, but the demons of political bias that haunted early publications have continued to influence modern media outlets.

Pamphlets and Politics

When newspapers began in Europe, they were nothing more than handwritten pamphlets boasting a “political agenda.” Examples included The Weekly News of 1622 and The London Gazette of 1666. Pamphlets such as these were circulated among close friends, family, and merchants as a primary means of communication regarding important issues such as war, the economy, and social customs.

The Founding Fathers used the power of the pamphlet to incite the people to revolt against the British. Common Sense, a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine promoting independence, was widely distributed and in proportion to the colonial population outperformed many of today’s bestselling books. Common Sense, though it is perhaps the most prominent example, is just one of hundreds of pamphlets published and distributed in the colonies up through 1776.

It wasn’t until 1690 that newspapers were introduced to the United States. Publick Occurrences both Foreign and Domestic, appearing in Boston, Massachusetts, was the first publication. Having been published without any regard to authority, its first (and last) edition was initially met with great resistance. Much of the resistance was due to unfavorable reporting on the British treatment of French prisoners, suggestions that the British had aligned themselves with “savages,” and the fact that the publisher, Benjamin Harris, had not received permission to print the publication. Publick Occurrences was immediately suppressed, Harris was arrested, and all copies were destroyed. But why?

According to Bruce Thornton, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a professor of classics and humanities at California State University, “The notion that reporters should possess Olympian objectivity is relatively recent. In the nineteenth century, most newspapers were explicitly linked to a particular political party and the economic interests of the publisher.”

Newspapers, throughout history, have rarely been about what the public should hear or what they have a right to hear. In fact, they have often been about what the government wants the public to hear. Since newspapers were first created, the government has frequently demanded a hand in writing them.