3. One of America’s earliest political scandals involved a newspaper’s links to the government
In 1791, Thomas Jefferson attempted to publish a refutation of the Federalists’ positions advocating a constitutional monarchy in the Gazette. Fenno denied him the space in the newspaper. Jefferson, with James Madison and other leading opponents of the Federalists, turned to Philip Freneau. Jefferson, as Secretary of State, offered Freneau a job as a translator in the State Department. The job was little more than a sinecure. Instead, Freneau took the reins as editor of the new National Gazette, a newspaper which presented the views of the Democratic-Republicans, criticized the Federalists (including Washington), and supported the revolutionaries in France. Personal attacks on leading Federalists, including Washington, Adams, and Hamilton, were common in the National Gazette. Attacks on Democratic-Republicans featured in the rival Gazette of the United States. Both became national newspapers.
Other newspapers across the United States reproduced the articles found in the two Gazettes, in a manner later adopted using the Associated Press, United Press International, and other agencies. Thus, leading sources of newspaper content throughout the country were subsidized by factions of the Federal government. When the links to the government, through Hamilton for the Gazette of the United States and Jefferson for the National Gazette became known, both papers were exposed as political instruments, rather than independent newspapers. Jefferson resigned as Secretary of State in 1793, which ended financial support of the State Department for the National Gazette. The paper ceased publication that year, though it had by then bestowed the nickname “His Rotundity” on Vice President John Adams. The Gazette of the United States continued to publish until 1818, though under varying names and owners.