Basically, I agree PB. However, it's important to keep the following in mind because, as you've pointed out, some people just run to daylight with the 1st amendment's wording that precludes government wholesale restrictions on speech and press.

First off, it was not the Founding Fathers who composed or ratified any of the 10 amendments. Those amendments were redacted from James Madison's speech as a member of the 1st Congress under the Constitution. That Congress was composed of about 90 members of which only about 20 had been at the Constitutional Convention. The Congress was populated by members who had been elected; the delegates to the Convention had been appointed by their states governing bodies. Thus, the Congress had a different concept of Nation and governing than the delegates had.

It's also important to understand that the common law at the time held a defendant potentially liable for even political statements even if they were true. Thus, freedom of speech and press was largely interpreted as preveting government from stopping someone from speaking or publishing. The 1798 Sedition laws passed by the Federalist Congress built on this concept resulting in several successful prosecutions. Even the Jefferson administration in 1801 did not move to repeal the Sedition laws; they simply waited until they expired later that year.