Also, What role did they believe the free press would and should play in a democratic society?
Democracy is when The People govern themselves. In order for people to govern themselves, in order for democracy to work, you need certain conditions. You need people to be fairly well informed about what's going on, so they can make wise decisions in the voting booth. Meaning you need a high rate of literacy and also a free press and free speech. Our founding fathers realized this, so they made both part of the 1st Amendment. The press and the media have the job of keeping people informed, giving both sides of the story, providing unprejudiced, unbiased information. Lately they've been doing a pretty crappy job, partly because rich special interests realize that whoever controls the media controls the country.
who knows? they certainly didn't care about freedom or democracy, being genocidal butchers and thieves, when they weren't busy raping child slaves
Please refer to the following laws: The Alien and Sedition Acts, 1798 James Thomson Callender, a Scottish citizen, had been expelled from Great Britain for his political writings. Living first in Philadelphia, then seeking refuge close in Virginia, he wrote a book entitled The Prospect Before Us (read and approved by Vice President Jefferson before publication) in which he called the Adams administration a continual tempest of malignant passions and the President a repulsive pedant, a gross hypocrite and an unprincipled oppressor. Callender, already residing in Virginia and writing for the Richmond Examiner, was indicted under the Sedition Act.
They felt that the free flow of information was important in a free society and that the press should be the watchdog for the people.
