Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper (1807)
Here&#x27;s the full text of the letter between Jefferson and Norvell.  Very interesting.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.let.rug.nl&#x2F;usa&#x2F;presidents&#x2F;thomas-jefferson&#x2F;letters-of-thomas-jefferson&#x2F;jefl179.php" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.let.rug.nl&#x2F;usa&#x2F;presidents&#x2F;thomas-jefferson&#x2F;letter...</a><p>I&#x27;ve often wondered if the protections afforded to the press in the first amendment of the US Constitution could have benefited from greater clarity.  What I mean by this is that I sincerely doubt the authors intended to protect lies, deceit and libel.  It would make no sense whatsoever to create a law that effectively says &quot;You can lie cheat and steal all you want and this shall be protected by the highest law in the land&quot;.<p>Here&#x27;s the text from the first amendment:<p>&quot;Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.&quot;<p>Some might say:  Well, libel is addressable through other legislation.<p>Well, yes and no.  It just so happens I was involved in a libel case many decades ago.  In this case a newsletter (this was before internet days) had given a competitor a monthly column to author.  This competitor decided to dedicate one column to attack our company and print a bunch of outright lies about our products.  Things like &quot;they don&#x27;t test&quot;, &quot;they ship their customers untested products&quot;, etc.  I mean, this guy knew nothing about us and yet he focused an entire page to defaming me and my company.<p>A meeting with my attorney resulted in letters to the publication&#x27;s entire board as well as the author&#x2F;competitor.  The only way I can characterize the reaction from the other side was &quot;they shit in their pants&quot;.  I came to learn a libel lawsuit is a very serious and potentially financially crippling event for someone without the means.  Large companies can manage them but individuals can lose their home, savings, job, etc.<p>I wasn&#x27;t interested in destroying lives or taking their home and savings.  They agreed to print a solid retraction, fire the competitor&#x2F;author and hire someone without skin in the game to pen that column.<p>Here&#x27;s the problem:  Retractions don&#x27;t work.  We saw an immediate and lasting hit to product sales.  It took about a year to recover from the hit piece.  Reputation is something that is hard to regain, particularly when people enter a fearful mental state.  In retrospect I should have been smarter and should have gone for a financial settlement of sorts to compensate for the damage they caused.  Our competitor actually gained sales and status in the industry as a result of this hit piece.<p>My point is that lies are like climbing to the top of a hill with a feather pillow, ripping it open and letting the winds take the feathers in all directions.  Fixing the damage caused by lies requires finding every single feather, which is impossible.<p>Sometimes I think we need to rethink this one aspect of the first amendment and either modify it or bolster it externally (through separate legislation) in order to prevent the kinds of lies and manipulation that have been a part of the press since, well, according to Jefferson, the very founding of this nation.