美國獨立宣言主要起草人 Thomas Jefferson 曾在1787年寫下這段話：
“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 to prefer the latter.But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.”
「如果要我在沒有報紙的政府或是只有報紙而沒有政府之間選擇，我會毫不猶豫的選擇後者。我的意思是，所有人都應該可以收到這些報紙，並且能夠閱讀它們。」
“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 to prefer the latter.But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them.”
「如果要我在沒有報紙的政府或是只有報紙而沒有政府之間選擇，我會毫不猶豫的選擇後者。我的意思是，所有人都應該可以收到這些報紙，並且能夠閱讀它們。」