Journalism is a foil to power structures. That is, opposition journalists are. Throughout the ages the journalist profession has been split into those supporting some certain power, and those on the fringes opposing it.

In the time of Thomas Paine, or even earlier the pamphleteers during the English Civil War, or even the people supporting Martin Luther against the pope, they were what we could call "journalists" actively opposing the power structures of their time.

What we tend to forget, however, is that during all those times, 95% of all journalists supported power.

We rarely hear about the people supporting the British Monarchy in the colonies, even though they outnumbered Thomas Paine and the anti-government journalists by huge amounts, especially in the 1750's/1760's. Same for all the people supporting the Pope against Luther.