The term Fourth Estate or fourth power refers to the press and news media in their explicit capacity, beyond the reporting of news, of wielding influence in politics. The derivation of the term arises from the traditional European concept of the three estates of the realm: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners.
I’d be happy if they started reporting on it with the urgency that they should.
I remember the news flying a helicopter trying to find BLM riots/destruction of property of any kind. They were desperate to find any action (and they couldn’t find any where they were).
Where was that coverage when Elon Musk’s goons illegally invaded and seized control of federal buildings. Where is that urgency as the constitution is being thrown in the trash.
There was less urgency on Jan 6th!
If corporate news is recording all of this, it’s zoomed in on their asses with an Instagram filter on.
Their political influence is bought and paid for.
The most progressive by-the-book journalist in any corporate news stockade is going to be bent into shape as a regime-supporting centrist or they’ll be out of a job. It’s that simple.
With the job market like it is, and AI being close enough for dipshits not to notice, they’re frozen in fear and can’t bring themselves to write anything that won’t be misinterpreted as normalization of fascism.
That’s literally what journalism is supposed to do.
It’s one part of it. Pointing the camera is a tiny part of what they do.
Metaphorically, they’re not helping.
The ones that step out of line get banned or sued. ABC paid up just to stay in the game. AP refused to capitulate, and now they’re banned from the White House. It’s making them more timid when questioning KKKaroline.
When the consequences for being critical were less severe they were doing the exact same stuff
I think there’s a little bit of nuance, at least. Like refusing to call a nazi salute a nazi salute, or excessive use of passive voice (eg: “A man was killed after an encounter with the police”). Those things aren’t making the world better.
The media outlets are helping Trump keep focus off of his actual goal. It’s easy when all his distractions are catastrophes by their own right.
It’s like “hey look at Gaza”, “look at immigrants”, “look at all the human rights violations!”
While they just destroy the democratic institutions and sell them to their friends for scraps.
And when they’re all done, they are gonna declare the United States a failed project, and divide the country amongst each other.
Yeah, but that’s not what they’re doing. Their camera is pointing somewhere else.
