The Fourth Estate

Freedom of the Press.  Sacrosanct, unless you are a blogger, someone who does not have an editor above him.  No, we must have editors, because there must be a corporation we can sue somewhere for real money.  If we want to sue a blogger, they have no money.  It all comes down to money.

So if you are going to be the intrepid journalist going after the real story in politics (fiction, Colbert called it), you need access.  Not the kind of cloak and dagger access of a lock pick and a thumb drive, but rather, that of a chair, in a blue room, where a mouthpiece of the administration, paid to lie on its behalf can decide what to tell you.

So where is the competition?  No one has "the scoop", no one can have "the exclusive" - instead, the various news outlets get their chair, and they all run the same story.  The same assertions.  The same conclusions.

It may as well read:

The following is from the Administration today concerning...

There will be no investigation of fact.  Instead, if the Administration wants to destroy an enemy, it will leak something "juicy", "red meat" to the press room.  Then they will go about their follow-ups.  But nothing will cause them to challenge in any real sense, what is said.  In fact, there is a very important reason for this:

They will not be invited back to the press room.  Their news outlet will lose access, and not be able to run the story.

So the Editor does not want the reporter to get the real story.  The Editor has other journalism- I mean stenographer students to put in the place of misbehaving truth-seekers.  The chair in the press room is coveted... because the Fourth Estate is coveted. 

This then, is why bloggers are hated and reviled.  See, a blogger does not have an editor, does not require access to the press room, and most of the time would not want it.  Why bother with bated breath to hear a lie- when you should be about getting to the truth.

Competition for the truth is the filter we use to get to the facts.   The real story is the money story.  The bubble gum story is worthless.  Supression of the facts is exactly what the administration or any branch of government wants to do, so other means of getting the truth must be employed.  This means you do not believe the media.

Some call the media liberal, others call it main stream, others lame-stream.  Well, there is enough conservative media- no one dare suggest that Bush did not have journalists in Iraq because he wanted them to write an objective piece about an undeclared war in Iraq.  They put themselves in harms way, for money and because their editor wants to keep his chair in the white house press room.

If you want the real story, it does not come from NEWS CORP, CNN, VIACOM, DISNEY, GE, KOCHTOPUS, GOVERNMENT BROADCASTING, or anyone with an office inside the I-495.

Try instead:


LRC blog podcast
Mises.org
Antiwar.com
MaxKeiser.com