Written by Dallas Hyland
Thomas Carlyle in “On Heroes and Hero Worship” attributed the following to Edmund Burke: “Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all.”
In the United States, the press is often referred to as the “fourth branch” of government. It acts as an outside set of checks and balances that keeps our elected and appointed members of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches accountable to the people.
The founders of this country were supreme in their wisdom to establish in the First Amendment the guaranteed freedom of speech and consequently, a free press. Without such, no measure of collective and formidable force may be brought to bear upon a government that goes awry. An informed people is not only a necessity of our civilized society, it is the guarantee against tyranny of any kind.
It has been noted that power attracts sociopaths. Be it somewhat a stretch to say that all who come to power are in fact sociopaths, it holds true that power seems to be an instrument where unfairness can be levied on the most effectively disproportionate manners. You see, it is not that power corrupts so much as it is that power attracts the corruptible;which may be why here locally, at the city management levels, we have a serious problem. A problem mind you, that rivals an often bemoaned assertion that the current U.S. President exhibits.
When the executive branch has more power than the legislative branch, the byproduct is extremely dangerous from the highest levels of government in our land, right down to the smallest of municipalities.
So where is the fourth estate here locally?
Well, perhaps you should ask them because from my vantage point they are nothing short of web marketing engines. The press here appear to be in an all out race for the bottom of journalistic ambiguity whilst hoarding the dwindling market of what were once print media dollars for the now digital media dimes.
And the leaders here, content now that government is less an instrument of good for the people as it is a means to a conglomerate end, is counting on it.
As an example, look at Washington City and its current public relations debacle over the Warm Springs.
The city was caught somewhat off guard by the media attention they received in response to their nefarious behavior and in an effort to “control” the message, the mayor was put out front to give interviews. News agencies reported his admonitions that all was on the up and up and that a park was under way to be completed in February of this year.
There. All better. People placated. Problem solved.
Not by a shot.
First, there is the inconvenient fact that whatever it is they are doing, there may be some issues with budgeting and permitting both on a local and federal level which has been clearly bypassed.
Second, and more importantly, in a later somewhat reluctant interview, the Mayor told me that it was never intended to be a park but a clean up. This past week, he even went on to tell an audience in a public meeting the very same thing.
Put aside for a second the notion that this is a political ruse rivaling an outright deception to the the public and ask this: Why didn’t the initial reporting sources ask more questions and investigate the story more?
But furthermore, and perhaps more glaringly important, upon the knowledge that these news agencies have been misled by the Mayor, where the hell is their follow up story?
This is but one of a multitude of examples of what happens, I think, when the press loses sight of its significance to the people in lieu of its role in generating advertisement dollars for its owners.
The job of the fourth estate is to “inform a debate worthy of a great people and a great nation.” It is the press’s job to do so with civility and with respect but also with fervor and audacity. The press exists to put on notice those who would abuse power and the responsibility that comes with it. And it is for the reader that they are supposed to do this.
If something as simple and seemingly benign as a tiny natural spring in the desert is so brazenly dismissed as something worthy of being honest and forthright about, then surely it is not unreasonable to ask just what the hell else this local municipality does that is equally if not more dishonest and egregious. That is the nature and the crux of reporting at times.
But if reporting agencies can be easily duped without so much as a rebuttal, and a citizenry tolerates not only a government that treats them this way but the news sources that aid in the process, then by default perhaps the ones to hold most accountable here are the people.
Those whose self-interest rests in the status quo get what they ask for you know.
See you out there.
