An Elegy for the Fourth Estate

The Fifth Estate rises. 

By Mark Angelides | Jan 2, 2025 @ Liberty Nation News, Tags Articles, Media, Opinion

 

With 2024 in the rearview mirror and 2025 just begun, perhaps a moment of reflection is warranted for the not-so-sudden demise of the formerly vaunted Fourth Estate. Its position atop the cultural landscape has been rejected by much of the Western world, and it exists now as an artifact that resides in nostalgia more than zeitgeist. It was an avoidable self-immolation. But what will rise from the ashes? And will the fresh phoenix be any better?

The Fourth Estate King Is Dead …

While some lament the death of journalism, it is rather the organs through which modern events are seen that suffer under the weight of history – and, more importantly, historical revisionism.  The basic principles of news gathering and reporting remain largely unchanged, but Fourth Estate gatekeeping imposes a fractal filter: If it doesn’t fit the narrative, it doesn’t make the page.

A case in point: In the aftermath of the 2024 election, newsrooms sought to stanch the bleeding by casting their nets for “conservative voices.” This tokenism suggests that – to borrow a phrase from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias – the news purveyors “whose frown / And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command / Tell that its sculptor well those passions read.” The owners, editors, and publishers were well aware that they were reading from only one side of the hymnal and fully understood that they were purposely ditching the rubric for opposing voices.

It was a gamble that the Barack Obama era rewarded. But as Ovid correctly noted, “Times change, and we change with them.”*

A Trust Deficit

A Statista study found that just 32% of American adults trust the “news media most of the time.” This is not unique to the United States. Across the Anglosphere, there is a pervasive plurality of mistrust. Australia reaches the heady climes of 40% trust, Canada is at 39%, and the United Kingdom is rivaling the United States at 36%.

And here’s the rub: The 2024 numbers are not much different from those of 2023. The legacy media was well aware that the public was skeptical; instead of trying to remedy the situation, the media Masters of the Universe  doubled down in the hopes that Vice President Kamala Harris would become the next president and the situation could continue as normal. 

As President Ronald Reagan reminded us, “Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in.’” Meet the New King …

As the Fourth Estate gasps its final breath of credibility, the new kid on the block is the alternative media. Consider these statements:

• Fox is the most widely watched cable news network. 
• Fox News primetime averaged just 1.85 million viewers. 
• It lost 20% of its viewers in the last year.

If this is Fox’s situation, how are the likes of CNN and MSNBC faring? So where is the American public getting news?

Sites like our very own Liberty Nation News have seen a massive uptick in readers and viewers these last few years. The social media platform X is now rated the top download for news apps in roughly 100 countries. Joe Rogan is the undisputed podcast king of the world, boasting roughly 30 million followers across Spotify and YouTube. And video channels by the thousands have a bevy of viewers and subscribers who are looking for a different perspective.

People have choices now that were unavailable just a decade ago. They can ditch purveyors with the click of a button and still be informed by myriad other sources. The legacy media assumed it had a stranglehold on news – and acted like it. The industry was dismissive and agenda-driven to the point where it could safely castigate half of its potential audience as racists and not feel the brunt. Those days are long gone.

To return to Shelley: “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay / Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

But at the edge of that desert, a new media oasis awaits the hardy traveler.

*Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis.

~ Liberty Nation does not endorse candidates, campaigns, or legislation, and this presentation is no endorsement.

 

Read More From Mark Angelides Editor-in-Chief

Tim Walz Hits Keep Right on Coming

By Rich Kozlovich

 

For a start we now absolutely know the  CNN "interview" with Dana Bash was nothing more than a farce, making it impossible for Bash to ever claim she's anything other than a Pravda propaganda hack.  It was a 41 minute interview, a "per-recorded interview",  that only showed 18 minutes, with CNN refusing to release the parts they cut out.  Which according to media professionals isn't the norm, "meaning, CNN was running cover for her in order to make her look better than she really was."

 Now it's being wondered, "if Kamala had to have editorial control of her interview with reporters serving as her handmaids, what does it say about her that she had to cut so much out? This is clearly amateur hour from her side."

As for Tim Walz, many are asking "who vetted this guy"?  His brother says he's  not the one you want making decisions.  They've not spoken for eight years and says there are stories he could tell.  Apparently meaning Walz conduct has been egregious for a long time, but wants to keep his family out of it. 

The problem is he's not any different than Kamala or any of the other "leading" Democrat liars, including MD Gov. Wes Moore who claimed he won the bronze star.  He says he was told he won it and just accepted that.  Well, I served, and when I was being separated I was required to review my awards, and I know what I was eligible for that wasn't listed, and if I'd been told I won a Bronze Star, I would have noticed it was missing.   But, we're expected to believe he didn't notice "his Bronze Star" wasn't listed?   

Now Walz relationship with China is being seriously questioned, wondering if he really is a Manchurian candidate, and it's being wondered if he's ever been on China's payroll.   If there 's smoke, there must be fire, but unless the Pentagon turns over the needed records, it will be difficult to understand what was really going on, and they're stonewalling Congress.  Why? If there's nothing there, then why?  That will be interesting to watch play out.

We also now know he's a persecutor of Christians, as the Governor of Minnesota forcing teachers to abandon their traditional faiths to teach in Minnesota.   As Andrea Widburg states:

Like all good communists, Walz believes the only faith allowed is the one that aligns with the state, and anything that deviates from that will be punished. 

People are what people do, not what they say, and not what the Pravda media says about them.  If their actions are blatantly unconstitutional, that's who they are, and when they're part of a culture of like minded people, it's then culture corruption, and no vile act could possibly offend them.   He's been vetted by those just like him.

And the hits just keep right on coming.