Twain was just repeating what Thomas Jefferson wrote: >I will add that the man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. he who reads nothing will still learn the great facts, and the details are all false. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/99-01-02-5737

And he now wishes he had.