Looking at the way Thomas Jefferson set about his work representing the new United States of America in France in the years immediately leading up to the French Revolution, I came across a fine observation.

Jefferson over in London was taken aback by the ribald anarchy of the British press:

The licentiousness of the press produces the same effect which the
restraint of the press was intended to do. If the restraint prevents things
from being told, the licentiousness of the press prevents things from being
believed when they are told.

No change there?

Or is it even worse? That the licentiousness and sheer babble of the press are so grotesque that people will believe every daft thing they read? And if you believe in anything, you believe in nothing?

That said, a cacophony of free voices is better than the silence of mewling media people doffing their cap to ridiculous injunctions.