Posted by
Icarus on Monday, March 23, 2009 12:53:45 PM
Do you know where the term the Fourth Estate originated? If Wikipedia is correct, it was first used by none other than Edmund Burke (whom I've quoted elsewhere) being cited by Thomas Carlyle.
[British politician Edmund] 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. (Italics added)
However, the alternative meaning, quoting Henry Fielding in the Covent Garden Journal of 1752, is just as fitting a description of today's MSM.
"None of our political writers ... take[s] notice of any more than three
estates, namely, Kings, Lords, and Commons ... passing by in silence
that very large and powerful body which form the fourth estate in this
community ... The Mob."