Some Things Aren't As New As We Think: The Partisanship of the Press

In her magnificent new history of the United States, “These Truths,” Jill Lepore recounts the thinking of James Madison in 1791.  In an essay called “Public Opinion,” Madison identified a source of instability which he believed to be particular to a large Republic:  The people might be deceived.  “The larger a country, the less easy for its real opinion to be ascertained,” he explained.  That is, factions might not, in the end, be consistent, wise, knowledgeable, and reasonable men.  They might consist of passionate, ignorant, and irrational men, who had been led to hold ‘counterfeit’ opinions by persuasive men.”  (Madison was thinking of Hamilton and his ability to gain public support for his financial plan. We have our own individuals to think of today.)

Madison went on, “A circulation of newspapers through the entire body of the people is equivalent to a contraction of territorial limits.”  The way out of the political maze which Madison had cited was, in his opinion, the newspaper.

It was an ingenious idea, Lepore writes.  It would be revisited by each passing generation of exasperated advocates of Republicanism. The newspaper would hold the Republic together; the telegraph would hold the Republic together; the radio would hold the Republic together; and the internet would hold the Republic together.  Each time, this assertion would be both rightand terribly wrong.

Lepore goes on to cite the evidence:  Newspapers in the early Republic weren’t incidentally or inadvertently partisan; they were entirely and enthusiastically partisan. They weren’t especially interested in establishing facts; they were interested in staging a battle of opinions.  “Professions of impartiality I shall make none” wrote a Federalist writer.  “They are always useless, and are besides perfect nonsense.”  Does that sound familiar?

Maligned by the early founders of our nation as destructive of public life, parties, driven by newspapers (as is the case today with cable TV and social media) became its machinery. “The engine,” said Jefferson, “is the press.”

So what we see today on MSNBC and Fox News and the plethora of partisan social media isn’t really as new as we think.

As always, we need to work very hard to sort fact from partisan misrepresentation. Seeking truth as best we can. Our responsibility.