What Would Benjamin Franklin - Citizen/Printer - Do with "Dangerous Data"?

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one." -- A.J. Liebling

If Benjamin Franklin, citizen-printer, had "dangerous data" pertaining to an aspirant to succeed George Washington in his high office, what would he do with it?

Would he "Poor Richards" it? Publish under a pseudonym, as he did (as "an American Guesser") when describing the http://www.greatseal.com/symbols/rattlesnake.html">Gadsden Flag's symbolism? (Note his anonymous letter was published right after Christmas, 1775.)

Would he set up a confidentially-registered website, PDF the materials, and put them out there, without editorialization or filtered treatment, for all to virtually view for themselves?

Freedom of the press is indeed only guaranteed to those who own one. Franklin understood that innately, and wielded that guarantee like few others before or since.

But what would he do in the modern context?

- Dave

with the web and the internet. It's really like everyone with web access has their own newspaper and soapbox from which to spread whatever message they want. It is very cool and Ben Franklin would approve I think.

... and many of our other prototypical polemicists, methinks.

- Dave

Franklin's letter is a good read, if you have an idle few minutes of your own.

How we all spend our "idle hours" at our modern printing presses could well shape the next election, and the course of the Republic.

Heady stuff indeed!

: )

- Dave

challenged or unable to handle the blowback put in it the mail and send it to the NYT. If you think it is worth money get a literary agent and contact the Enquirer.

I have read several of these posts and you claim the candidate knows the data so quit the bs and get it out or sell it.

Edit: Don't leave dna on the back of the stamp.

Elizabeth I nearly drove her advisors mad - seemingly waiting until the last possible nanosecond to make decisions, and constantly seeking possible new options that had not yet been considered.

The last time I checked tho, they're still speaking English in the UK, rather than Spanish.

Neither blowback nor profit enter into the equation. What a crass and cynical view!

- Dave

... "availing yourself" here?

All kidding aside, one can substitute "leader" or "decisionmaker" for "king" in that proverb, and the meaning still holds true.

- Dave

decision makers. Neither is good or bad, it is their nature and the worst thing that happen is putting a fact finder in a decision making position, especially in politics.

; )

Are there gradations in your binary view? Are there decision-makers who are more or less apt to take more or less time, for instance?

Or fact-finders who - in a pinch, under adrenaline conditions - can be counted upon to make a decision?

- Dave

That's a pretty neat thought, actually.

As for leaving DNA on the back of the stamp: digital forensics is more like it, for 1's and 0's.

- Dave

... with INTJ Jefferson at the command post.

- Dave

"The Rattle-Snake is solitary, and associates with her kind only when it is necessary for their preservation. In winter, the warmth of a number together will preserve their lives, while singly, they would probably perish."

Although A.Guesser is here referring to the country America, it applies now. The data should be put out for all to see, and all can preserve. Singly, it may perish.

"Conscious of this, she never wounds 'till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her."

The bite doesn't come until after "generously giv notice" - and giving the prospective enemy the opportunity to change course.

- Dave

1. Give generous notice up front, thereby giving the prospective enemy the opportunity to change course.

2. Lay your cards on the table quickly in order to give the prospective enemy time to refute, this would be generous and just if you were wrong, yet your motivation was pure, as opposed to whipping out a last minute primary form of October Surprise.

I believe the common denominator in both cases is generosity. I guess the ultimate question is, has enough notice been given? If you believe it has, I say proceed with a clear conscious.

Thank you, very much, for that treatment of the timing element.

- Dave

Publish it, often in the form of letters to the editor of a newspaper, under an assumed name.

... outlet, no less!

: )

- Dave