The Trial of John Peter Zenger (Rewind)

<p>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<strong> John Peter Zenger</strong> decided to print a four-page newspaper called the <strong>New York Weekly Journal.</strong></p><p>This is pretty remarkable in itself, as there was only one other newspaper in town called the <strong>New York Gazette</strong>, an organ of the British crown and the governor of the colony.</p><p>But Zenger’s paper would call to question the actions of that governor, a virtual despot named <strong>William Cosby</strong>, 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.</p><p>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...