There is no way newspapers stay free as mere tools of opinion. That is what so many news outlets have become. As Edward R. Morrow, famed newscaster once said, "Most of us probably feel we couldn't be free without newspapers, and that is the real reason we want newspapers to be free."

The state of the media is at variance today with the best expectations in the American political tradition. The Public Square does not recall a time America defined itself as "Left" or "Right." These terms now badly divide the population. The media is sadly wrapped inside this false dichotomy, embracing rather than standing apart from it.

Newspapers and journals have always politically "tended" in one direction or the other. But the nature of being free does not include a press that would operate mainly inside versions of cloaked ideology. News was once seen as the chief source of democratic illumination. Unfortunately, these instruments now draw their primary energy from deepening existing sets of blind prejudices.

A number of great newspapers flourished in the 20th century. One example worth recalling from the era is the spawning of the prestigious authority of The Washington Post once it came into the hands of Eugene Meyer on June 13, 1933. Meyer wanted news to bear an independent voice, be part of a public trust, and serve the people in a democracy well. He believed the American people could be "relied on to do the right thing when they knew the facts. I am going to give them the unbiased truth," further notes his daughter, Katherine Graham in Personal History, her acclaimed memoir. In 1934 Meyer crafted a philosophy that would carry the day.

The Post would rise to an unrivaled position in American news from 1950 to 2000, as we know. It did so because it traded on these principles:

That the first mission of a newspaper is, to tell the truth as nearly as the truth may be ascertained;

That the newspaper shall tell ALL the truth so far as it can learn it, concerning the important affairs of America and the world;

That as a disseminator of news, the paper shall observe the decencies that are obligatory upon a private gentleman;

That what it prints shall bear fit reading for the young as well as for the old;

That the newspaper's duty is to its readers and the public at large, and not to the private interests of its owner;

That in the pursuit of truth, the newspaper shall be prepared to make sacrifice of its material fortunes, if such course be necessary for the public good;

That the newspaper shall not be the ally of any special interest but shall be fair and free and wholesome in its outlook on public affairs and public men.

Great principles don't unfold themselves. They need to be put into practice, just as Meyer did with The Post. Clearly, The Post is not the paper it once was. But if things change, and the way people get news is vastly different, underlying principles still hold. They have never been more needed.

The problems of electronic magnification of social media now, and the splintering and Balkanization of cable news, don't help. More recently our news has come to overly mirror the excesses of the curve of populist thought on the one hand, and the brittle absolutism of the modern academy and parochial despotisms of government on the other. Our confusion as a society owes a great deal to the absence of careful journalism feeding off these prevailing (and other outworn) modes of thought.

Passing public enthusiasms may sell news, but citizens in a democracy need context. The news, living as a we do in a more rancorous time especially, depends on a discipline of elevated perception and a spirit of great judiciousness. Balance helps puncture inflammation. It enables a body politic to percolate, and citizens to free themselves from darkened understandings.

Otherwise, do we come to a point where the press enslaves more than liberates us? Once a right assumes the upper hand over responsibility, and self-expression substitutes for public discernment, the press is not far away one day from ceasing to have either. The Public Square believes most news organizations today ought to be registered as "lobbyists." For that is what they mostly now are.

The protections of the right of a free press carry responsibility for those seeking their protection. The news profession once more needs to be independent - and free. The Post standard can largely still work. The public deserves better, our democracy more.