Americans have always had mixed feelings about their press. In folklore, the reporter is Superman's alter ego, but he is also the Front Page cynic who would trade in his grandmother for a scoop. By way of a more elevated example, almost everybody (at least among journalists) remembers Jefferson's famous remark that if he had to choose between a government without newspapers and newspapers without a government, he would pick the latter. But few recall that Jefferson also wrote on another occasion: "Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper."
Thus attacks on the press are a good old...
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