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.
In 1704, the American Colonies’ second newspaper, The Boston News-Letter, was published. This publication provided information on events and politics in Europe and worked with the British government to disseminate information. Other, similar newspapers began sprouting up all over the emerging nation, supported by printing contracts with Great Britain. Newspaper printers received much of their information from printers in other cities and began exchanging copies and stories amongst themselves, similar to a modern news-wire.
In the 1760’s, as the French-Indian War came to an end, the focus of these publications began to center on the colonies’ increasingly strained relations with Great Britain. During this time, printers became less reliant on the British printing contracts. Due to the political climate, printers also began to gravitate to different sides of the argument for independence, and the idea of neutrality was all but abandoned. As tensions rose, the entire nation was receiving much of the same information and, through this system, the Founding Fathers were able to distribute the message of independence and resistance very quickly.
