Freedom of the Press Requires Good Reporting

If you think that our recent issues about journalism are new, think again. Before our Constitution was even written, American colonists had a little-known battle over the role of the press. In 1733, John Peter Zenger started publishing true but unflattering accounts about William Cosby, the governor of New York. Cosby didn’t like this and had him charged with libel. The judge tried his best to have Zenger found…