The Fourth Estate

by Joseph DeMaio, ©2023

(Aug. 2, 2023) — The term “Fourth Estate” is today loosely defined as consisting of the press and journalists in general. The term was originally coined in Great Britain as referring to the press and journalists serving in the role of a watchdog over the exercise of governmental power.  There, British philosopher Edmund Burke described Parliament as consisting of three components or “estates”: the “Lords Spiritual,” the “Lords Temporal” and the “Commons,” adding, however, that situated above the gathered legislators in a “Reporter’s Gallery” existed “a Fourth Estate more important than they all.”

Recall as well that Burke is reputed to be the one who gave us the ominous warning: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” People here need to start “doing something” rather than watching their nation undergo further “fundamental transformation”…, which if not stopped, will not end well.

In the United States, a free press benefits from being the only recognized profession shielded from governmental control and protected from that control by the Constitution.  The First Amendment specifically declares that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” (Emphasis added)  One would think that with such protections enshrined in the Constitution, a concomitant responsibility would spontaneously arise in the profession to objectively, independently and truthfully report on matters affecting the populace. 

Such self-imposed protocols would serve to fully inform the people and equip them with facts – aggregated separately from editorial opinion – necessary to adequately inform them, not only to assist them in their daily tasks, but to prepare them when called upon to vote.  That may have been true at one time in this nation…, but as they say, “that was then, and now is now.” 

Today, the vast majority of the once admired profession has devolved into the propaganda apparatus of one political party – the Democrats – and one leftist ideology: woke, radical progressivism.  We are well on the way to becoming a despotic, totalitarian banana republic, although the term “republic” has diminished meaning as the tentacles of a government presided over by an incompetent, profane and addled octogenarian ooze into every crevice of our lives.

Sadly, vast segments of the once venerated profession have devolved into the role of willing, even eager co-conspirators with Brandon and his marionette-masters to deceive, censor, marginalize and “run cover” for – as opposed to “cover” – the crimes of the “First Family” over the years.  Despicable.

In short, much of the “press” has forfeited any claim of entitlement to respect or credibility under the Constitution.  And for those outlets still offering printed versions of their product, the value and highest and best use is not in reading the content set out in ink or fused toner on the tangible paper.  Instead, it is in the absorbency of the product when placed at the bottom of bird cages.