"Back then, news didn't break unless the town crier tripped over his own words. There were no "breaking reports," no special election coverage, no bickering pundits crammed into a single screen. News traveled so slowly that it took more than six months for word to spread across the thirteen colonies that the Revolutionary War was over."
"To them, news and opinion were largely the same thing. Information came in the form of political pamphlets like Thomas Paine's Common Sense, incendiary writing meant to persuade and mobilize. These pamphlets, and later newspapers, were openly funded by political parties and politicians. There was no pretense of objectivity. The goal wasn't balance. It was influence."
"If this all feels familiar, it should. We are once again swimming in partisan argument, anonymous attacks and opinion masquerading as fact, except now it arrives instantly, endlessly and everywhere at once. What were once pamphlets and party papers have become social feeds, podcasts and comment threads."
In 1791, news traveled slowly through town criers and political pamphlets, taking months to spread across colonies. The Founding Fathers viewed news and opinion as inseparable, with information deliberately designed to persuade rather than inform objectively. Political parties and politicians openly funded newspapers and pamphlets like Thomas Paine's Common Sense, featuring vicious anonymous attacks without pretense of balance. Modern media now mirrors this partisan model through social feeds, podcasts, and comment threads delivering instant, endless content. Artificial intelligence will further amplify this persuasive language at unprecedented scale. Despite lionizing press freedom, the Founders created a system fundamentally different from contemporary journalism's stated ideals.
Read at Brooklyn Eagle
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