Our Free Press: Let's Celebrate It

Notable top U.S. business and political figures have taking to vilifying the U.S. media of late. So, it’s important to take a moment to celebrate and mark the importance of our freedom of the press.

Vested in the first amendment to our U.S. Constitution, the freedom of the press is one of our basic mechanisms that safeguards all other freedoms.

All politics aside, let’s support the important role journalists have in our free society.

Let’s not deter editors and reporters, no matter the news source, from a careful pursuit of any and all facts as stories develop. And, let’s thank the media as their work remains in the best interests of our republic.

Looking to history, here’s a few cool quote from American leaders on our freedom of the press:

 “Where the press is not free no one ever will.” - Thomas Jefferson

 “Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.” - Benjamin Franklin

 “We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” - John F. Kennedy

 “Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

 “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” - Thomas Jefferson

 “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” - Thomas Jefferson

 “To watch the progress of such endeavors is the office of a free press. To give us early alarm and put us on our guard against encroachments of power. This then is a right of utmost importance, one for which, instead of yielding it up, we ought rather to spill our blood.” –Alexander Hamilton

 “As unbalanced parties of every description can never tolerate a free inquiry of any kind, when employed against themselves, the license, and even the most temperate freedom of the press, soon excite resentment and revenge.” -John Adams

 “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” – Thomas Jefferson

 “Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control. Where ever the cause of liberty is making its way, one of its highest accomplishments is the guarantee of the freedom of the press.” - Calvin Coolidge

“I never did think the truth was a crime. I am glad the day is come in which it is to be decided, for my soul has ever abhorred the thought, that a free man dared not speak the truth.” - Alexander Hamilton