The New Fourth Estate

There was a movie made in the 1970’s that you might be familiar with called “Network.” It’s main character is a TV network news anchor who has finally had enough of the B.S. and declares as much during his live broadcast with the line, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” His angst became a rallying cry for a public fed up with the cynicism of their government and the superficiality of their daily lives, both of which were piped to them daily by an ever-present, over-hyped media driven culture. Though written at a time when the general public still viewed mass media as trustworthy and respectable, the movie’s message is eerily prescient of the state of our information industry today.

It is generally believed that those who hold the reins of power never want their subjects to know too much about what is going on, only enough to make them think that all is well, or soon will be well if it is not already. In an effort to combat that type of imperialistic attitude, the U.S. Constitution was written with a provision forbidding our government from abridging freedom of the press. In conjunction with the freedom of speech, these provisions were meant to encourage a viable “Fourth Estate” of government that would act as a voice of conscience, reason, and truth in an effort to keep the government from screwing everyone over and stealing their hard earned fruits of labor. Almost immediately, the powers that be figured out how to restrain that fourth estate by collaborating with the owners of newspapers, and later radio and television companies, offering access to information in return for favorable press. Those with less integrity succumbed to the pressure, and were rewarded handsomely for their spinelessness. The relationship continued with the discovery of the radio spectrum and the government giving away something they didn’t even own- the airwaves- to favored businesses. Now that the broadcasters could reach many millions of people, there was some real money to be made. And to make money you have to appeal to viewers and listeners.

The truth of the matter is that the bulk of today’s mass media is controlled by a small collection of corporate conglomerates, and the information that their media outlets offer is based on two things: the opinions of the majority owner(s), and the generation of profit. The sharing of information and news is no longer considered a respectable career of public service, but a commodity to be bought and sold and tailored to each listener's personal likes and dislikes. Rather than be a collection of voices across the country telling each other about the latest changes in the world, our main media outlets are tightly controlled and highly competitive dispensaries of information that is filtered and whitewashed to reach the largest possible audience.

Further clouding the availability of factual, relevant news information is the somewhat incestuous relationship between the news reporting media and the entertainment media. More and more often, news programming focuses not on the issues that affect our pocket books and our freedom, but on the themes elevated to popular status by the entertainment industry. Crime, sex, and celebrities seem to top the list of hot stories day after day. Cross promotion of movies, music, and television shows fill up hours of daytime programming. Even the reporting of critical issues is portrayed in a sensationalistic fashion to appeal to a particular demographic. Sound bites. Headlines. Fancy graphics. They are all meant to hold your attention while telling you nothing of value, or at the very most, not enough for you to be informed.

No matter which side of the fence you sit on politically, odds are you view mass media, also known as Main Stream Media (MSM) with a certain amount of skepticism, if not outright disdain. Conservative thinkers exclaim that the media is overly liberal while Liberal thinkers bemoan the media as being biased and one-sided. Citizens complain that the line between fact and opinion is becoming too blurry to distinguish while reporters and editors increasingly rely on unverified reports and copied information in an effort to be first with the details. Who is right? Who is wrong? Whatever the answer, the reality is that more and more people are turning away from the more in-depth sources of news and information in favor of polarizing talk radio and opinion driven TV talk shows that masquerade as straight, unbiased news. Rather than actually be informed, our politically correct society would prefer be affirmed and the process becomes a self-fulfilling slide down the hole to absurdity.

In another ironic twist, our national quest for profit has once again turned one of our most special, trusted institutions on its head. First to go was the notion of representational self-government, which has deteriorated to the point that most elected officials don’t even know the full text of things they vote on, let alone care about their constituents beyond what they need to say to them to get re-elected, and who instead pander to business and union interests for campaign contributions and personal perks. (Who now equates the words honorable and politician?) Second to go were the courts and the rule of law, made a mockery by the ineffective and often suspect criminal system and the gambling fever mentality that has turned our civil courts into a lawsuit lottery system. (Ever heard of unequal sentencing, early release programs or exorbitant jury awards?) Now we see the demise of the honest media, lay victim to its own lust for cash while ignoring the fact that without their free public airwaves they would have no profit, no business at all. (By all reports, subscriptions to newspapers are down, TV news ratings are down, and radio news is mostly traffic reports and weather forecasts surrounded by opinionated talk show hosts.)

Main stream media no longer is the best source for complete, unbiased news, but it is still the easiest way to get information. But despite attempts to portray themselves as real information authorities, too many recent reports have been uncovered as slanted and contrived or completely fabricated altogether. Events are described in terms of spin instead of in terms of what happened or what was said. And more attention is being paid to keeping up with the latest famous indiscretions than explaining geopolitical instability or our own domestic dilemmas. With each passing day, faith in the Fourth Estate grows weaker. Instead of being the champion for openness and truth, it is seen as an old and tired creature, bent on defending the status quo against all odds that it is losing.

The internet information explosion, and out of that the phenomenon known as “blogging” has begun to change the face of media, turning back towards the original intention of the Fourth Estate. And while so much that comes out of the internet journalists screen is just bits and pieces of a story, taken together with other bits and pieces they offer the bigger picture that main stream media isn’t showing or won’t spend the time to learn. And they offer a more comprehensive analysis of what actual people think and feel. Internet journalists force things to the surface when they might otherwise have remained secret forever. Internet journalists are picking up the challenge that the mass media has abandoned. And while individually these journalists are no more likely to have the whole story than a rip-n-read radio host, they will once again assure that somebody is always watching those who hold the reins of power. Someone is watching and someone will tell.