I see that it was on this day in 1702 that the first issue of the Daily Courant, according to Wikipedia, “England’s first national daily newspaper” was published.
While I am less concerned about the decline of the print newspaper, in our current parlance, as a platform for the distribution of news and opinion than some of my friends, I am with all who see the intelligent, fair-minded collection, curation, and publication of news as critical to a free society.
As the complex but inarguably brilliant Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1787, “…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 later.”
May the newspaper or its electronic children flourish in our new age.
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