When the first amendment was written, the only organized means of widely disseminating information were the government, religious organizations, and private pub

When the first amendment was written, the only organized means of widely disseminating information were the government, religious organizations, and private publishers. The last two, of course, were regarded as a vital balance to the first, but (as far as I know) no-one suggested that the freedoms that came to be enumerated in the amendment required these two channels to be compelled to disseminate whatever screed some arbitrary person came up with. The Federalist Papers, for example, were published because the owners of several newspapers chose to do so.