{"id":36691,"date":"2012-08-06T15:38:14","date_gmt":"2012-08-06T19:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=36691"},"modified":"2012-08-06T15:38:14","modified_gmt":"2012-08-06T19:38:14","slug":"benjamin-franklins-clippings-circa-1730","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/06\/benjamin-franklins-clippings-circa-1730\/","title":{"rendered":"Benjamin Franklin&#8217;s Clippings, Circa 1730"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>An illustrated series of short news items written by Benjamin Franklin for <\/em>The Pennsylvania Gazette<em>. News at that time was fueled by hearsay and favored brief, outlandish anecdote. Where Franklin was running his paper in a wilderness devoid of information, we now operate in a wilderness so granite-packed with information that perhaps we now feel just as isolated, just as in the dark. These represent the dawn of American journalism, but I think in the present climate we\u2019re moving back in that direction.<\/em><\/p>\n<script>\/* <![CDATA[ *\/ portfolio_slideshow.slideshows[557] = {\"timeout\":\"4000\",\"autoplay\":\"false\",\"trans\":\"fade\",\"loop\":\"true\",\"speed\":\"400\",\"nowrap\":\"true\"}; \/* ]]> *\/<\/script><div id=\"slideshow-wrapper557\" class=\"slideshow-wrapper clearfix portfolio-slideshow-centered\">\n<div id=\"slideshow-nav557\" class=\"slideshow-nav\">\n\t<a class=\"pause\" style=\"display:none\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\">Pause<\/a>\n\t<a class=\"play\" href=\"javascript:void(0);\">Play<\/a>\n\t<a class=\"restart\" style=\"display:none\" href=\"javascript: void(0);\">Play<\/a>\n\t<a class=\"slideshow-prev\" href=\"javascript: void(0);\">Prev<\/a>\n\t<span class=\"sep\">|<\/span>\n\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript: void(0);\">Next<\/a>\n\t<span class=\"slideshow-info557 slideshow-info\"><\/span>\n<\/div><!-- .slideshow-nav -->\n<div id=\"portfolio-slideshow557\" class=\"portfolio-slideshow\" style=\"\">\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content \">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Pewter_Paris-Review-Daily-600x777.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Pewter_Paris-Review-Daily-600x777.jpg\" height=\"777\" width=\"600\" alt=\"Slide 1\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Lion-Paris-Review-Daily-600x778.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"778\" width=\"600\" alt=\"Slide 2\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-next slideshow-content not-first\">\n\t\t<a class=\"slideshow-next\" href=\"javascript:void(0)\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"psp-active\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wrestler-Paris-Review-Daily-600x778.jpg\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" height=\"777\" width=\"600\" alt=\"Slide 3\"><\/a>\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"slideshow-meta\">\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slideshow-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slideshow-description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\n<\/div><\/div><!--#slideshow-wrapper-->\n<p><em>Jason Novak works at a grocery store in Berkeley, California, and changes diapers in his spare time.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>[tweetbutton]<\/p>\n<p>[facebook_ilike]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An illustrated series of short news items written by Benjamin Franklin for The Pennsylvania Gazette. News at that time was fueled by hearsay and favored brief, outlandish anecdote. Where Franklin was running his paper in a wilderness devoid of information, we now operate in a wilderness so granite-packed with information that perhaps we now feel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":312,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2384],"tags":[35,6451,2861,149],"class_list":["post-36691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-look","tag-art","tag-benjamin-franklin","tag-history","tag-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Benjamin Franklin&#039;s Clippings, Circa 1730 by Jason Novak<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"August 6, 2012 \u2013 An illustrated series of short news items written by Benjamin Franklin for The Pennsylvania Gazette. News at that time was fueled by hearsay and favored\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/06\/benjamin-franklins-clippings-circa-1730\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Benjamin Franklin&#039;s Clippings, Circa 1730 by Jason Novak\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 6, 2012 \u2013 An illustrated series of short news items written by Benjamin Franklin for The Pennsylvania Gazette. News at that time was fueled by hearsay and favored\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/06\/benjamin-franklins-clippings-circa-1730\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-06T19:38:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jason Novak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jason Novak\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/06\/benjamin-franklins-clippings-circa-1730\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/06\/benjamin-franklins-clippings-circa-1730\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jason Novak\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c73a3e20b9e41a9e46c987091765e681\"},\"headline\":\"Benjamin Franklin&#8217;s Clippings, Circa 1730\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-06T19:38:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/06\/benjamin-franklins-clippings-circa-1730\/\"},\"wordCount\":112,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"art\",\"Benjamin Franklin\",\"history\",\"news\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Look\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/06\/benjamin-franklins-clippings-circa-1730\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/06\/benjamin-franklins-clippings-circa-1730\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/06\/benjamin-franklins-clippings-circa-1730\/\",\"name\":\"Benjamin Franklin's Clippings, Circa 1730 by Jason Novak\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-06T19:38:14+00:00\",\"description\":\"August 6, 2012 \u2013 An illustrated series of short news items written by Benjamin Franklin for The Pennsylvania Gazette. 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