Lincoln and the Newspapers

Between 1860 and 1865....Abraham Lincoln shutdown around 300 newspapers (more or less).

Fact or fiction?

Pretty much completely true.

In this endeavor, Lincoln used the military to sweep through a town or city, and if the newspapers were printing material that was counter to the government plan of war against the south....the US Army would show up and shut them down.

This would continue until the end of the war, and the arrival of the Johnson administration.

Necessity?  Well...here's the thing, it was not in public agreement to conduct the war.  With dismal defeats over the first eighteen months, most journalists saw the 'campaign' as unwinnable and attempted to politicize their discussion in local towns. 

So the news system....for better or worse....failed to work.  Failure of the court system to rectify this?  That's another part of the discussion.

If Lincoln had not accomplished this?

Insurrection would have followed the administration and likely toppled the Lincoln administration.  

This fact being well known?  No.  I suspect if you asked a hundred 'experts' on the Civil War....fewer than ten would bring up this topic.  For some, it ruins the image of Lincoln....with some disturbed that newspapers had to be shutdown....to save the government.  

This coming up now?  Maybe if you asked people....more than a third of society would suggest a shut-down of social media (Facebook, Twitter) being necessary now.  For some....that's a very unpleasant suggestion.