#4th estate

[dynamobooks]

Doris Lessing: The Golden Notebook (1962/1972)

[federalistpixels]

Owned Press equals Owned Reality

Reality has more in common with clay than stone, it's more like a poem than a definition. Reality is no truer than what is printed in our newspapers, transmitting across our devices, and even misinterpreted through our own ignorance. Individuals, entities, and even ideas can change how we as a people interpret the world.

The free press was tasked with maintaining a unified version of reality based on truth. Through this lens, western society was able to centralize their societal beliefs, views, and nationalism. The Fairness Doctrine (1949-1994) required that opposing views be provided on all topics of public interest and any individual or group attacked by a report was provided opportunity to respond on the same program.

Congress attempted to codify this FCC regulation twice, but both Regan and George H Bush threatened to veto it. In 2009 the Obama admin came out against reviving it as well stating, "I believe as President Reagan did, that the electronic press—and you're included in that—the press that uses air and electrons, should be and must be as free from government control as the press that uses paper and ink, Period." In 2009, the GOP controlled senate attempted to pass legislature that would prohibit the reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine, it did not pass the House.

Keep in mind, the corporate control was never a problem for any of these administrations. Need I remind the reader, that there are ways to hold the government accountable, but there is little to no citizen control over corporations. These admins placed our news in the hands of entities completely unaccountable to the people. Entities whose sole reason for existing is to make money.

Political reasonings on both sides of the aisle for abandoning the Fairness Doctrine are Orwellian in nature, that somehow providing a regulation or law that requires opposing viewpoints will polarize the media or provide control over their reporting. This is of course, a fascist dog whistle. Fascism requires maintaining only one point of view, normalizing no longer hearing opposing viewpoints is the first step towards that end.

A Free Press is only a threat to those who wish to limit the people or hide the truth. There is nothing lost from free reporting unless you are ab individual or organization that wishes to hide their actions from others. To this end, the Free Press is one of the first things to be lost in societal collapse. The people can't learn of the collapse if those tasked with reporting on it are owned by those very people bringing about the collapse.

In late 1994 the Fairness Doctrine was struck down, in 1996 Fox News began broadcasting. It's politically biased and often angry reporting quickly found its target audience. Rather than report reality, Fox News reported what its audience wanted to watch and hear. The news had become subjective - at least on the right side of the aisle.

The first battle for America's democracy was lost as news stations were purchased by corporations that were not in search of objective truth or societal knowledge but ratings, ad revenue, and market share. With the 4th estate in shambles, with multiple versions of every event being reported, all seeped in audience-favored bias, societal reality splintered.

Politicians no longer need to be justified or hold the moral high ground; they just need to have a media mouthpiece say they are right and just. But, with all things in the USA, nothing is free, and so the politicians find themselves returning the favor of favorable reporting with favorable legislature. This tit-for-tat cycle has been going on for over 20 years. But a system under constant abuse will fall apart, we are witnessing the unraveling of societal reality every day.

This manipulation of reporting, this control over our perceived reality, has broken almost every pillar of democracy the United States Representative Republic had to offer. When those in search of power couldn't break the system because of the people, they broke the people's ability to recognize the damage being done and shattered their chances to organize against these domestic and external threats to society.

[hezigler]

Watch "CNN host goes VIRAL with response to Trump’s town hall" on YouTube

Brian has the best and most concise review and analysis of the CNN Trump fiasco available on video in North American English.

[garudabluffs]

Is the Fourth Estate Prepared?

"Back in 2016 legacy journalistic institutions struggled to define our changing political climate. There were debates over when racism could be named racism, or when a lie could be called exactly what it was – a lie. As the nation grapples with rising anti-LGBTQ legislation and laws, ongoing mass shootings, and continued movement towards authoritarianism in the Republican party, the ability of the fourth estate to rise to the occasion is called into question.

We discuss journalistic institutional preparedness, and the role media literacy plays in speaking plain truths. We're joined by assistant professor of broadcast journalism and critical race media literacy expert Christine McWhorter."

LISTEN 15:27 https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/fourth-estate-prepared

4/2/2023: Full Episode

Marjorie Taylor Greene: The 60 Minutes Interview. Then, DHS chief on challenges of securing border. And, Iceland’s lava fields after volcanic eruptions.

60 MINUTES 4/2/2023: Full Episode

Marjorie Taylor Greene: The 60 Minutes Interview. Then, DHS chief on challenges of securing border. And, Iceland’s lava fields after volcanic eruptions.

VIDEO 43:02 https://www.cbsnews.com/60-minutes/

[lilianeruyters]

Jonathan Escoffery || If I Survive You

Booker Prize Shortlist 2023 Mixed feelings about If I Survive You, mostly caused by the fact that it hinges between being a novel and a collection of short stories, which I am not a great fan of. Trelawny is the person who unites all the stories. To be honest: he is not exactly a likeable person. On the contrary, he is the type of main character you feel little sympathy for despite all the���

[gwmac]

Journalism in Crisis: How We Can Save the Fourth Estate

Edmund Burke, an 18th-century British political philosopher, came up with the concept of the Fourth Estate. The “three estates” present in the Parliament were the king, the lords, and the commons. There was a “fourth estate” that trumped them all – the press said, Burke. Introduction “If it were left to me to decide whether we should have a government without a free press or a free press without…

[pegafin]

4th of July McMansion Special: Full Sized Images!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, the full-sized images of my resplendent 4th of July Mcmansion! Read the original @mcmansionhell Discord conversation that spawned it here.

Presenting 🥁🥁🥁 If The Song “Stars and Stripes Forever” Blasted Directly into Your Earholes was a House: A Farmhouse Chic Colonial Symphony 🎺🇺🇸

We enter the stately colonial foyer, and behold the ✨majesty✨of The 4th of July Tree (please cry now).

Oops! Looks like there was a bit of a balustrade crash there lol 😅

Close up of the non-euclidean side table.

The living rooms, true Reflections of America.

⭐️ THE DINING ROOM HATH BECOME UNTO A FLAG! ⭐️

The kitchen boats a pair of elegant and patriotic live fish chandeliers. ✨

Close up of the "faucet grunkle," a classic and normal part of any kitchen.

Charming eat-in nook!

Master Bedroom 1, which boasts a charming pair of 4th of July trees.

Master Bedroom 2

Child's Bedroom

Spare Children's Bedroom

Spare Spare Childrens' Bedroom

And now 🥁🥁🥁 🎆The grand bathroom finale!🎇

🎼From the French stuff🎶

🎶To the His and Hers🎶

🎶to the Peeing is a Spectator Spooooort🎶

🎵God bathe America!🎶

Our home sweet home God bathe America!

Our hooooome sweeeet hoooome! 🎆🎇🎉

[luliaka]

Some highlights from Batman: Streets of Gotham #12. This whole series is fantastic, A+++, highly recommended.

[toxooz]

ALSOOOOOOO i Finally got to ride a skateboard at the skatepark with bf n friends for the first time ever yesterday and i feel so 👀👀👌👌👌💯💯💯 i managed to be able to balance and push around and stop without falling and it was fun tbh!! i can see getting muscle memory and improvement by doing it consistently 😤 i just hope this aint too short of a phase for everyone so i can hopefully get me own board soon 🙏

[curiousserpent]

i still think i should be paid compensation for listening to rich people at work.

[vampfucker666]

ok shelves are a major major major wip... i am. gonna need a second shelf. all of my rh dolls did NOT fit on here how i wanted LMAOOOO i got like 4 of them on the 'dont put dolls here cause the cats might become too tempted and its not even eye level' shelf. for Now. but at least i have space to move some of the shit off my desk FINALLY

[hezigler]

Will Corporate News Let America Burn Just To Get High Ratings? Again...

It's like 2016 all over again. Ratings over responsibility.

The greatest failure of our democratic republic is that of the fourth estate.

[futurefind]

Mutuals Only / Open (Sasume, Traumaversary edition)

The breeze is fresh, summer sun warming the earth, nights bright with the wildlife. It fills her lungs with every breath, makes her skin buzz from the inside, and—

She hates this time of year.

Sasume lets her mind go fuzzy at the edges, muscles go mechanical, as she ignores the impending chorus of how she shouldn't be alive. The voices singing of the graveyard baked into her flesh. All the blood spilled just for her existence. How none of it was her own. The way she wishes it could've been hers, instead. Wants to try and pay for it, anyway, and pretend it's not rooted in selfishness. Hating herself all the more for it.

She cuts through one job after another, not even sure of how many she goes through or the new wounds she's gathered. She knows better than to worry about it, that she needs to drift away from noticing it, before she crumples under the weight of her own existence like a house of cards.

She can worry about anything else next month, when—

One blink. Two. Three. They don't disappear, either to places of actual import or the recesses of her mind.

"...Did you need something?"

[lilianeruyters]

Cecile Pin || Wandering Souls

Wandering Souls is a story of sadness and hope. Sadness for losing a home and family, hope for the chance of starting a new life in a new place. In the 1980’s many people fled from Vietnam, they became known as the boat refugees. Pin tells the story of three refugees ending up in London. It becomes clear quite soon that the Vietnamese family trying to flee their home will not arrive at their…

[classic-property-management]

🇺🇲Happy Independence Day!🇺🇲

[pegafin]

4th of July McMansion Special! 🤩🇺🇸

Last 4th of July, the @mcmansionhell Discord chat joined me on the most magical 4th of July journey I ever experienced. Now, today, in honor of the day after American Tax Day, I will share that journey with you...✨

To see the resplendent, full sized images of this patirotic 4th of July home, click here.