Try replacing “newspaper” with blogs or citizen journalism or anything you like really; it will be an instructive exercise in the circular nature of history, especially in media.
“If Mr. Leavitt’s study of the press and is methods is to be measured by the amount of invective he heaped upon it, he might well be awarded a diploma as its grand censor. To crystallize his sixty or seventy minutes of speaking into a few words, he seemed to regard the newspaper press as a horrible octopus which was reaching out its arms and threatening to topple over the foundation stones of civilization and liberty. He charged the press with being unscrupulous, ever ready to publish scandalous or defamatory matter provided that money, influence, or personal spite supported it. Nobody could go to bed at night with a surety of awakening in the morning with his reputation intact and unsullied, according to Mr. Leavitt.”
– New York Times, May 13th, 1890
