The Passing of the Fourth Estate

When I was young I learned about something called "The Fourth Estate," and, I seem to remember that it was a term borrowed from the French.  Basically, it referred to the existence, or presence of something beyond the groups of people represented by government, which had the potential for affecting the actions of the other groups.

This Fourth Estate included those who reported the news, and the most common synonym for it was "The Press," taken from the printing presses which printed the news for popular consumption.  The people who gathered that news were called journalists.  As a well respected group, they had very strict rules that they followed, and upon which was built a high level of public trust in them, as regards the reporting by them of only facts, which facts included only who, what, where, and when.

             This was a real newsman, who often spoke truth.  Not like what we see today.

There was no room for speculation or opinion in the reporting of news, because it was a given that the readers of that news were capable of making decisions based on the news because they were well informed.

Personally, I have come to believe that that Fourth Estate is pretty much dead, and last year's Presidential election proved it.  The Fourth Estate is now referred to as "the media," I suppose because it now encompasses print and broadcast sources.  I also believe that the media created the most horrific candidate for President in the history of a once proud nation.  They created this monster, not by simply reporting to us what he said or did, or what was happening around him, but by giving the impression that there was mass approval of him, his actions, and his words.  The fact that he was already notorious before he was given a "reality" television program was celebrated by this media.

Gleefully, they reported his every action, the more bizarre, the better.  They shaped and formed public opinion of this horrible man by presenting all of this with such happy reports and reporters.  Instead of showing the traditional restraint in news reporting, by reporting what he said or did, they presented that information with a slant that persuaded the poorly informed public that it was all good.

At the same time that they glorified this truly awful son of a bitch, they also gleefully spread the most horrendous lies about his opponent.  Those lies were based on a thirty year campaign of lies about Hillary Clinton, and they culminated with the announcement just days before the election that "evidence" was forthcoming, which evidence never did materialize.  Whatever the reasons for that late release of misinformation, I believe that that last minute kerfuffle was enough to ensure the election of the worst possible candidate.

Then, after their poorly thought out (but successful) campaign resulted in his election, they scrambled to explain why it happened.  Guess what?  It was never the job of the now deceased Fourth Estate to tell us why anything, and it is not their job now!  I don't want to hear about how so many voted for him because they wanted change!  The media persuaded masses of ignorant clods that the rich TV personality was the instrument of the changes the ignorant supposedly wanted, without ever showing them how he was the last person on this earth who could ever effect positive change!

The media aided and abetted in the lies.  They aided and abetted in spreading misogyny, and racism, and bigotry, and hate.  They helped to create a false promise of change that has not been forthcoming.  They - for whatever reasons - led the ignorant, poorly educated, and misinformed electorate down a primrose path that plunged this nation into an abyss of doom and gloom.

Hate was already on the rise across the nation, as people from different political parties all of a sudden lacked any ability or desire to work together.  Threats are being made on all sides.  I hope the media is happy with its product.  I hope they enjoy it as fascism takes away our liberties, and their ability to ever inform anyone ever again.