The press was way more political in Jefferson's day - but he defended it anyway

President Trump has made a habit of attacking the press as being a promoter of "fake news," part of a "corrupt system," and the propagator of "lies." His administration has made enemies of certain outlets, even locking them out of briefings.

In a speech in Melbourne, Fla., he made an appeal to American history to defend his stance, saying presidents Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln "fought with the media and called them out oftentimes on their lies. 

Trump even quoted a June 14, 1807, letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell in which Jefferson wrote "Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle."

The President was correct about Jefferson. The Founding Father had his problems with the press. But what he didn't note was that despite his agitation with the press, he defended a much more biased press as a necessary part of free speech.

In 1803, during his first term as President, Jefferson wrote to Pennsylvania Governor Thomas McKean suggesting that the editors of a newspaper critical of his administration should be prosecuted for "pushing its licentiousness and its lying to such a degree of prostitution as to deprive it of all credit."

This is but one of many examples of Jefferson's harsh words against a negative press. ...