Thomas Jefferson on Newspapers and Government

Ah-- but there's an important sentence that comes immediately after the above excerpt. One often finds this quote edited out.

But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.

Jefferson is aware that newspapers, by themselves, are not sufficient. A free press is a necessary component of democracy, but if the public is not universally educated, and if the paper is too expensive or elitist for the general public, then it is not sufficient.

The First Amendment does not promise to isolate individual citizens from the consequences of insulting their boss or making a public fool of themselves. Here's the text of the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Note that the First Amendment is about what Congress shall (or shall not) do. Employers aren't forbidden from firing employees who set poor examples or give away company secrets, for example. (A private school such as Seton Hill University operates under the principles of academic freedom, which means that if someone at Seton Hill is unhappy with an article published in The Setonian, their desire to see that article removed or edited has to be balanced with SHU's desire to give its journalism majors a quality education, and with my right as a faculty member to teach my subject without outside interference. Any respectable journalism publication, whether it recevies funding from a school or not, has an obligation to avoid slander and correct published errors.