Progressive Ponderings: The Fourth Estate
by Joe Mayer
Fourth Estate (noun) – the public press
Estate (noun) – social standing or rank, esp. of high order; a social or political class
The definition of "Fourth Estate" is inadequate. Why?
Put simply, it doesn't emphasize the high rank it has been given in democratic history. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads:
Polls taken in the United States throughout 2005, two years after the invasion of Iraq, indicated that the majority of U.S. citizens continued to believe that (1) ten Iraqis were involved in 9/11, and (2) Saddam did have weapons of mass destruction. This could not have happened without the cooperation of the press. Even though these two fabrications were proven false, many Americans still believe them to be factual. Administrative personnel, especially Vice President Dick Cheney, continue to infer and even declare them to be true, and the press continues to report Cheney's statements without comment.
On Wednesday evening, April 25, public television aired a documentary produced by Bill Moyers entitled "Selling the War." Moyers meticulously walked through the media's lockstep condescension to the administration leading up to and selling the imperative to go to war.
Nearly every major news organization in the United States except Knight-Ridder bought and subsequently sold the administration's fictitious "facts."
Under a dictatorship citizens know that "news" is nothing but the party line. But in a democracy citizens want to believe that the media is not abusing its freedoms and that the press is believable. Thus, when news is manipulated by a press more interested in its bottom line than in respecting its duty to accurately inform the citizenry, the press is just as accountable as its counterparts in a tyrannical dictatorship.
The name "Fourth Estate" indicates an independence and influence apart from any other power, and a responsibility and accountability to the nation and its citizens. When its power is purchased in the market just as any other commodity, it sacrifices truth for profit.
That's where we are today in the U.S.
It took the majority of our citizens three to four years (2001-02 to 2004-05) to extract the truth regarding the Iraq invasion and occupation. The citizens have moved beyond official explanations, but the press continues to regurgitate administrative spin as truth — or "news".
The Fourth Estate, the majority of which is owned by corporate conglomerates, answers to its power clients. These include advertisers whose first responsibility is to the bottom line, stockholders whose agenda is short-term profits, and government officials whose modus to paving the way to more power through deregulation and allowing monopolistic practices.
The result is that instead of fostering an informed, educated citizenry, we have a citizenry indoctrinated by corporate agendas, and one that is among the most depoliticized of any democracy in the current world.
What is the evidence? A low voting rate; the absence of reaction to the government's erosion of human, civil and constitutional rights; and the general lack of rebellion and protest (even a contempt for protest) as a citizen's right and duty.
The current trend in the corporate media is more consolidation, cutting investigative staff, the use of pooled resources, and an increased reliance on corporate-sponsored think tank "experts" (read: paid political shills) to provide analysis of the news. As the Moyers documentary points out, the same people who maneuvered us into Iraq are still featured prominently by the propaganda arm of the Fourth Estate.
The First Amendment was written to protect the press from the government. The question now is: How do we protect the press (and the media) from itself?
Fourth Estate (noun) – the public press
Estate (noun) – social standing or rank, esp. of high order; a social or political class
The definition of "Fourth Estate" is inadequate. Why?
Put simply, it doesn't emphasize the high rank it has been given in democratic history. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution reads:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." In other words, our forefathers treasured the importance of the press enough to enshrine those rights in the First Amendment.
Polls taken in the United States throughout 2005, two years after the invasion of Iraq, indicated that the majority of U.S. citizens continued to believe that (1) ten Iraqis were involved in 9/11, and (2) Saddam did have weapons of mass destruction. This could not have happened without the cooperation of the press. Even though these two fabrications were proven false, many Americans still believe them to be factual. Administrative personnel, especially Vice President Dick Cheney, continue to infer and even declare them to be true, and the press continues to report Cheney's statements without comment.
On Wednesday evening, April 25, public television aired a documentary produced by Bill Moyers entitled "Selling the War." Moyers meticulously walked through the media's lockstep condescension to the administration leading up to and selling the imperative to go to war.
Nearly every major news organization in the United States except Knight-Ridder bought and subsequently sold the administration's fictitious "facts."
Under a dictatorship citizens know that "news" is nothing but the party line. But in a democracy citizens want to believe that the media is not abusing its freedoms and that the press is believable. Thus, when news is manipulated by a press more interested in its bottom line than in respecting its duty to accurately inform the citizenry, the press is just as accountable as its counterparts in a tyrannical dictatorship.
The name "Fourth Estate" indicates an independence and influence apart from any other power, and a responsibility and accountability to the nation and its citizens. When its power is purchased in the market just as any other commodity, it sacrifices truth for profit.
That's where we are today in the U.S.
It took the majority of our citizens three to four years (2001-02 to 2004-05) to extract the truth regarding the Iraq invasion and occupation. The citizens have moved beyond official explanations, but the press continues to regurgitate administrative spin as truth — or "news".
The Fourth Estate, the majority of which is owned by corporate conglomerates, answers to its power clients. These include advertisers whose first responsibility is to the bottom line, stockholders whose agenda is short-term profits, and government officials whose modus to paving the way to more power through deregulation and allowing monopolistic practices.
The result is that instead of fostering an informed, educated citizenry, we have a citizenry indoctrinated by corporate agendas, and one that is among the most depoliticized of any democracy in the current world.
What is the evidence? A low voting rate; the absence of reaction to the government's erosion of human, civil and constitutional rights; and the general lack of rebellion and protest (even a contempt for protest) as a citizen's right and duty.
The current trend in the corporate media is more consolidation, cutting investigative staff, the use of pooled resources, and an increased reliance on corporate-sponsored think tank "experts" (read: paid political shills) to provide analysis of the news. As the Moyers documentary points out, the same people who maneuvered us into Iraq are still featured prominently by the propaganda arm of the Fourth Estate.
The First Amendment was written to protect the press from the government. The question now is: How do we protect the press (and the media) from itself?
Labels: 1st Amendment, media, press
posted by Leigh Pomeroy at 6:28 PM
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