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Gaffer Variety:
The Fourth Estate V055:
By Willie Gaffer:
August 28, 2006:
Recently, a very good friend of mine caused me to become interested in discovering just what the term, "Fourth Estate" means. He had written a letter to a certain Detroit Newspaper writer who had written some stuff about airport security. That's okay, but the guy in his writing revealed some of the techniques used by the security people to expose suspects. My friend though this was at best unwise and at worst a danger to the public's safety. He expressed this concern to the reporter.
Sure enough my friend got back a really snotty letter from this turd defending his exposure of security procedure by hiding behind the skirts of the Fourth Estate. He had as a member of the Fourth Estate, as he put it, a right and a duty to report to the American people. In general, he made this fourth estate thing seem like some kind of unlimited license and power for special people like him. Sure! I have found those people who need to claim the license of the fourth estate to be a bit below second rate in journalism. Twain once referred to this type as penny a worders. The real professional journalists don't need to hide behind any skirts.
So much for the Detroit Newspaper buffoon. Now what about the term itself? I searched several internet and reference sources. From that, I have put the pieces together to get a reasonable picture of what the term "Fourth Estate" actually means. So far as I can tell the term refers to the press in general as a kind of people's advocate and watchdog of the other estates. Of course, press in modern times has come to include television and even, in some rare cases, the film industry.
We must go all the way back to Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) to identify what was probably the first use of the term. This guy was a British historian and essayist. He was a fairly vigorous social and political critic. Perhaps his most famous work was "The French Revolution" published in 1837. In that book he wrote the phrase "A Fourth Estate, of Able Editors, springs up." In another book, "On Heros and Hero Worship," Carlyle used the phrase in pretty much the same way.
So, if the press is the fourth estate, what are the other three estates? In this we have some slight difference of definition depending on which country we select. In France of that time, the three estates were the church, the nobility, and the commoners, but commoners did not include peasants. It applied to the middle class who, in theory, represented the peasants in assembly. This class are those who Marx called the bourgeoisie. In Sweden and Finland the Estates were the nobility, the clergy, burghers, and land-owning peasants, but not other peasants. In the United Kingdom, the estates were, and still are, Lords Temporal, Lords Spiritual, and Commons although we know that the balance of power has gone completely to the Commons.
My reading of Carlyle gives me the impression that he meant this fourth estate idea to be one of responsibility rather than one of license. In the times he wrote, and even now, it is important to have someone giving a great deal of time to watching the people who have power. It is in this watchdog whistle blower function that the press too often abdicates its responsibility.
I think this is a very important function of anyone who writes, advocates, and criticizes. We have a responsibility to not only watch what people in power are doing, but also to make what we learn public. This does not mean, however, that we have an unlimited license to shoot off our mouths. We have no inherent right to put American citizens at risk just for the sake of filling a few column inches with our twaddle. Responsibility is the key in this. It always comes back to that.
Each of us has a responsibility to our community. Whenever we think of acting we must ever ask the question, will this enhance or diminish my community? If the answer is negative, we have a responsibility to refrain no matter how juicy the plum. We have no inherent right to blabber everything we learn, regardless of consequences. This is not just for the members of the press, but for all citizens of a community. Our first responsibility is not for our own gain at any cost. Our first responsibility must always be to the community that sustains us.
I have noticed, in my own observation, an almost predictable
correlation between the national stature of the reporter and the
level of integrity. The lowest integrity is, as we would expect,
at the local level where a large number of the participants are
somewhat near the amateur level. On the national stage, the quality
of reporting goes up along with the integrity of the reporters.
That is a shame, but also a reality of life. For every Jennings
we have thousands of inept blowhard wannabes. It's really kind
of silly, because all Jennings had that they lack is integrity.
That is the first thing most of them trade off in their rush to
get a leg up. I suspect it has always been that way and will always
be that way. Sigh!
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