What I'm thinking about more and more these days is simply the importance of transparency, and Jefferson's saying that he'd rather have a free press without a government than a government without a free press.
quote by Esther Dyson
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Related quotes
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
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No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
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No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.
Thomas Jefferson in letter to George Washington (9 September 1792)
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As a conservative who believes in limited government, I believe that the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press.
quote by Mike Pence
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Acid wasn't getting a whole lot of bad press at the time, and as I saw the whole bad-press thing happen, I became aware that the government had done a whole lie on all the other benign drugs as well. It became clear to me that the government wanted no real drug education.
quote by Tommy Rettig
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A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
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I believe in an America with a government of men devoted solely to the public interests — men of ability and dedication, free from conflict or corruption or other commitment — a responsible government that is efficient and economical, with a balanced budget over the years of the cycle, reducing its debt in prosperous times — a government willing to entrust the people with the facts that they have — not a businessman's government, with business in the saddle … not a labor government, not a farmer's government, not a government of one section of the country or another, but a government of, for and by the people.
quote by John F. Kennedy
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No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, no one ever will. Chance is the pseudonym of God when he did not want to sign.
quote by Anatole France
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The government and the people are under a moral necessity of acting together; a free press compels them to bend to one another.
quote by James Mill
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The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to bare the secrets of government and inform the people.
quote by Hugo Black
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Helen Thomas
In her time she's seen them all:
Johnson's anguish and Nixon's fall
From Camelot's dissolution
In a grieving nation's tears
Helen Thomas was a witness
to the history of my years.
She held a place of honor
Where all to her deferred:
Senior writer in the press corps
Well respected, sometimes feared.
Now she's fired and disgraced-
banned from her accustomed place.
The arbiters of elegance
took umbrage at her words
Her statement lacked “correctness”
As per the beltway herd
She's a racist and a bigot, An old and senile shrew-
They have no need of sticks and stones who know what words can do.
Once upon a better time
We had a Bill of Rights
The press was free and speech was free
We were vigilant of our rights.
But now it's just a paper
a tapir burning in the night..
These days the press conveys the lies
that government wants heard.
If any dare to disagree
They're soon kicked to the curb.
The rest will heel at master's voice
Like obedient whipped curs.
Her speech may have been hateful
Doubtless many will agree
But speech must be protected
Or else none of us is free.
Where's our Voltaire with courage rare
to defy rank tyranny?
poem by John F. McCullagh
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Criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press.
quote by Hugo Black
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Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
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I'm very much in support of the free press, but the free press ought to be educational and informative. And I believe they have fallen down recently on that.
The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers wthout government, I should not hesita
quote by Thomas Jefferson
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We talk about a free press. These people hide, they make a lot of money off the media. They hide behind the slogans of free press, and then they can come out with crap like that. It's just garbage. It's insulting to the readers.
quote by Robert Scheer
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I've concluded that anarchism is an impractical ideal. Nowadays, I regard myself as a libertarian. I suppose an anarchist would say, paraphrasing what Marx said about agnostics being "frightened atheists,"that libertarians are simply frightened anarchists. Having just stated the case for the opposition, I will go along and agree with them: yes, I am frightened. I'm a libertarian because I don't trust the people as much as anarchists do. I want to see government limited as much as
possible; I would like to see it reduced back to where it was in Jefferson's time, or even smaller. But I would not like to see it abolished. I think the average American, if left totally free, would act exactly like Idi Amin. I don't trust the people any more than I trust the government.
quote by Robert Anton Wilson
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Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.
quote by Hugo Black
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Free Man
I sold my house, I sold my car
I took a job at millys bar
I met a man who was running from the government
Ah he wants to be a free man yeah
Ah he wants to be a free man yeah
He took me out to his campsite
I met his friends
They seemed alright
Until I noticed everybody seemed real upright
They just wanna be a free man now
They just wanna be a free man now
They just wanna be a free man now
Pardon me man
Oh but whos your mother
Oh and didnt she say
You should love one another
He showed me how to load a piece
To shoot it straight between the teeth
And the next thing I know I think Ive fallen in love
And Im living with a free man now
Now Im cooking for the free man now
He took me out in his old truck
He told me anyone who aint white sucks
Thats when I realized Id made a big mistake
Oh Im running from the free man now
Oh Im running from the free man now
Oh Im running from the free man now
Oh but pardon me man
Oh whos your mother
And didnt she teach you
She should love one another
Late one night I snuck away
To use the phone so I could say
Id appreciate a little bit of government
Cause Im married to a free man now
Oh Im married to a free man now
Yeah Im married to a free man now
Well Im married to a free man now
Yeah Im married to a free man now
Oh Im married to a free man now
I think Im running from a free man,
Running from a free man,
Running from a free man now
Oh Im running from a free man now
Oh Im running from a free man now
song performed by by Sheryl Crow
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The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
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