A Commentary page article Tuesday on
newspapers and democracy misquoted Thomas Jefferson. A correct version
is: "…and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a
government without newspapers, or newspapers without government, I
should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean
that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading
them." The quotation is attributed to a letter by Jefferson found in
"The Papers of Thomas Jefferson," according to A Dictionary of
Quotations, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.
Also, a photograph that accompanied the article was incorrectly
displayed; the visual image was flopped, or reversed. The picture
showed a boy reading a newspaper, circa 1940s.
This is yet another addition to our "Newspaper on newspaper corrections" series. Start here to read them all.
