The Fourth Estate or Fourth Power refers to the press and news media’s advocacy and implicit ability to frame political issues and originated in Britain. In the United States, the phrase "fourth estate" is contrasted with the "fourth branch of government,” a term that originated because no direct equivalents of the estates of the realm exist in the United States. The "fourth estate" is used to emphasize the independence of the press, while the "fourth branch" suggests that the press is not independent of the government.
Back in the day, probably before many readers were born, the media in the US was confined to three major networks: ABC, CBS, and NBC. News coverage was a simple 10- to 15-minute format in the evenings when unbiased reporting and factual news were paramount. Today, the landscape has drastically changed. The days of grizzled old newscasters like Edward R. Morrow, Walter Cronkite, John Chancellor, and Tom Brokaw are history. Today, it’s become newstainment with news celebrities as opposed to newscasters, and you almost expect some of them to break into song and dance to win and keep an audience. The pressure to attract ratings and advertising dollars is horrendous, and the traditional values seem to have been lost in the process.
I don't think the news was ever completely unbiased. Those of us who were around can remember the excitement in Cronkite's voice as he covered the launches of space vehicles. Morrow, with his cigarette smoking curling up from between his fingers, would editorialize at times, but generally, you were warned that something was about to be an editorial as opposed to straight-up new broadcasting. Today, not so much.
The biggest problem today, in my opinion, is that the power of the press has grown exponentially to the point that they are now major influencers, kingmakers, and borderline shills for one political viewpoint or another. Spin, innuendo, and outright falsehoods have become commonplace. Various political factions now have their favorite networks that spin the news to feed their vision for the direction of our nation.
We no longer have one basic template for what the US stands for. It used to be the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the various amendments to these documents. All candidates were held to a set of standards defined by what we call the American dream. Today, various factions on both the right and left of politics have distorted what freedom means and use hot-button issues like abortion rights, civil rights, and LGBTQ issues to polarize politics and dominate the news cycles. The press or Fourth Estate has taken sides in many of these debates and become the champions of these diverse views of what our nation should be.
I guess I'm sounding like an old curmudgeon, but I'm not. This nation was built on debate, differences of opinion, and the process of reaching a consensus that both sides could live with, even if they didn't love the outcome. The Fourth Estate enabled that consensus by trying to evenhandedly explain each side of the debate to the audience. Today, we don't see much of that; there is distinct partisanship in much of what we now call news. Ratings and money corrupt one of the few places voters rely on for guidance on the issues of the day.
I suspect that it is very hard not to have an opinion; most of us do. If you're covering the news of someone like Jeffrey Dahmer, it's going to be very difficult not to indicate some disgust in telling the audience what this monster did. But, it has become too easy and acceptable for newscasters to show bias on a range of topics. The danger here is that the public loses faith in the Fourth Estate to provide the truth and help them make fact-based, informed decisions, not influenced by emotional decisions based on hyperbole.
The big question now is can this be fixed? Given our predilection for excitement and stimulation, will we listen to a factual if dry version of the days news, or will we continue to demand more and more drama from the news networks. Notwithstanding the ratings pressure and ad money that drives much of this, we, the viewers, the consumers of the hyperbole are driving some of this by tuning into infotainment like FOX and MSNBC news? If we change channels and make a conscious effort to find straight up news instead of a version of SNL entertainment, the networks will be forced to change or they will be out of business. It's in our hands to demand and support unbiased news sources, and this can be a powerful tool for change.
Just as we hold the future of our nation, the impact of inflation, based on how we vote and what we buy, we hold the power to change the news for the better or let it continue to pollute the airways with something less than the news. Our choices as viewers and consumers of news can shape the future of the news media. We have a responsibility to demand and support unbiased news sources, and this can be a powerful tool for change. Either that, or we sit down and stop complaining about the news and the result of our indulgence in entertainment.
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