The Probert Encyclopaedia of General Information

NEW ENGLAND COURANT

The New England Courant was the fourth newspaper published in the American colonies. It was established in 1721 at Boston, by James Franklin, who had been deprived of the printing of the Boston News Letter. Franklin's friends were much opposed to the publication of a new journal, for they thought one quite sufficient for the entire continent. But James Franklin inaugurated a new departure in journalism by attacking the Government officials and lampooning the clergy. On this account the suppression of his paper was threatened, where upon Benjamin Franklin assumed the editorship, and continued the publication with the same freedom. It was finally suppressed in 1727.
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