An unapologetic apology for printing what ought not be printed

It was untrue, unworthy, unnecessary and/or counter to some perceived principle of worthiness to which the citizens, or their children, should never have been so basely exposed. I generally make some futile gesture toward persuading the caller that a newspaper should be a fairly open forum for ideas, facts, news and amusements.

In frustration I’ve been known to blurt that if only the inerrant truth were allowed to be printed we would print nothing but Bibles or Qurans — but which one?

When all else fails, turn to the masters of argumentation, those who’ve been there, done that and written the book on it.

Thus we electronically leaf to ol’ Ben Franklin’s “Apology for Printers.”

In 1731 Franklin printed an ad in the Pennsylvania Gazette seeking passengers for a ship sailing to Barbados. The ad rather bluntly discriminated by declaring the ship would not accept for passage any “Black Gowns on any Terms.” Black Gowns being a euphemism for the clergy.

As well one might expect in a pious burg founded by Quakers, the fur and the epithets flew.

So, in his characteristic unapologetic tone, Franklin published “Apology for Printers.”

The following are a few excerpts that I plan to commit to memory for the appropriate occasion, which I’m sure will arise sooner, rather than later:

“Being frequently censur’d and condemn’d by different Persons for printing Things which they say ought not to be printed, I have sometimes thought it might be necessary to make a standing Apology for my self, and publish it once a Year, to be read upon all Occasions of that Nature. Much Business has hitherto hindered the execution of this Design; but having very lately given extraordinary Offence by printing an Advertisement with a certain N.B. at the End of it, I find an Apology more particularly requisite at this Juncture, tho’ it happens when I have not yet Leisure to write such a thing in the proper Form, and can only in a loose manner throw those Considerations together which should have been the Substance of it.

“I request all who are angry with me on the Account of printing things they don’t like, calmly to consider these following Particulars

“That the Opinions of Men are almost as various as their Faces; an Observation general enough to become a common Proverb, So many Men so many Minds.

“That the Business of Printing has chiefly to do with Men’s Opinions; most things that are printed tending to promote some, or oppose others.”

Franklin paraphrased John Milton’s “Areopagitica” for one line of his apologia:

“Printers are educated in the Belief, that when Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick; and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter: Hence they chearfully serve all contending Writers that pay them well, without regarding on which side they are of the Question in Dispute.”

He even presaged my plea to angry readers:

“That if all Printers were determin’d not to print any thing till they were sure it would offend no body, there would be very little printed.”

Then, as now, there is no accounting for a reader’s taste in material. The gossip is often more ravenously consumed than the lofty ideas and debate over the commonweal:

“That if they sometimes print vicious or silly things not worth reading, it may not be because the People are so viciously and corruptly educated that good things are not encouraged. I have known a very numerous Impression of Robin Hood’s Songs go off in this Province at 2s. per Book, in less than a Twelvemonth; when a small Quantity of David’s Psalms (an excellent Version) have lain upon my Hands above twice the Time.

“That notwithstanding what might be urg’d in behalf of a Man’s being allow’d to do in the Way of his Business whatever he is paid for, yet Printers do continually discourage the Printing of great Numbers of bad things, and stifle them in the Birth. I my self have constantly refused to print any thing that might countenance Vice, or promote Immortality; tho’ by complying in such Cases with the corrupt Taste of the Majority, I might have got much Money. I have also always refus’d to print such things as might do real Injury to any Person …

“Thus, as Waller says,
“Poets loose half the Praise they would have got
“Were it but known what they discreetly blot;
“Yet are censur’d for every bad Line found in their
“Works with the utmost Severity …”

You should’ve seen what we refused to print.