Times and "Treason "

This seems like a propitious time for a quick quotation from that notable old insurgent-sympathizing America-hater, Thomas Jefferson:

The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and 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 latter.

Yes, but in this age of cowed, embedded, cheerleading media, we're much closer to Jefferson's former condition than to his latter one.