#149 John Peter Zenger and the Power of the Press

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

Tom Meyers

Places & Travel, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 8 March 2013

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A long, long time ago in New York -- in the 1730s, back when the city was a holding of the British, with a little over 10,000 inhabitants -- a German printer named John Peter Zenger decided to print a four-page newspaper called the New York Weekly Journal. This is pretty remarkable in itself, as there was only one other newspaper in town called the New York Gazette, an organ of the British crown and the governor of the colony. (Equally remarkable: Benjamin Franklin almost worked there!) But Zenger's paper would call to question the actions of that governor, a virtual despot named William Cosby, and in so doing, set in motion an historic trial that marked a triumph for liberty and modern democratic rights, including freedom of the press and the power of jury nullification. This entire story takes place in lower Manhattan, and most of it on a couple floors of old New York City Hall at Wall Street and Nassau Street. Many years later, this spot would see the first American government and the inauguration of George Washington. But many could argue that the trial that occurs here on August 4, 1735, is equally important to the causes of democracy and a free press. And somehow, we manage to fit Kim Kardashian into this. www.boweryboyspodcast.com Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Bowry Boys episode 149, John Peter Zinger, and the Freedom of the Press.
0:06.0	Hey, it's the Bowry Boys!
0:08.0	Hey!
0:09.0	The Bowry Boys is brought to you by EuroChipo.com.
0:14.0	EuroChipo's editors expect and recommend the best budget hotels in Europe.
0:19.0	On the web at EuroChipo.com.
0:23.0	Hi there, welcome to the Bowry Boys. This is Greg Young.
0:25.0	And this is Tom Myers.
0:27.0	Today as we approach our 150th episode, which is the next episode.
0:32.0	Tom and I were taking stock in the various groups of people who we've been fortunate enough to have as listeners for the show.
0:39.0	Young and old, New Yorkers, those who have never been here, Americans, people who live outside of America around the world.
0:46.0	One group that we haven't given a specific shout out to are the students who listen.
0:52.0	Because believe it or not, the show is a suggested listening to several classrooms around the United States.
0:58.0	So we will dedicate the show to a particular classroom at the end of the show.
1:03.0	We're honored to have students of all ages and all types of schools listening to the show.
1:08.0	So this one is for the students.
1:10.0	So why did we choose this topic of John Peter Zinger and the Freedom of the Press?
1:15.0	Yeah, so this is a very old school story.
1:18.0	It's set in the 18th century, it's set before the American Revolution.
1:21.0	I happened to be in jury duty recently.
1:24.0	It was not chosen for a jury.
1:26.0	But in this sort of amusing little intro tape that everybody has to watch, starting like Diane Sawyer with a 90s haircut.
	...

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