In a democratic society, where citizens supposedly choose their own leaders, one may find it logical that an unbiased system of press would be necessary for the citizens of such society to make informed decisions regarding whom to elect to leadership roles. The term used to describe this particular area of society that specializes in distributing information is the ‘fourth estate.’ People’s right to free speech and individual expression guarantees the fourth estate as a profession, known today as journalism.
In a democratic-republic like the United States of America (USA), journalists are important because they work to hold elected officials accountable to what they say to their voters, or their constituency. If a politician says something that is not true, various media outlets pick that up and start the citizen-dialogue; hopefully the politician who lied does not get elected. Basically, journalism is supposed to keep the politicians honest by calling them out on inconsistencies.
The phenomenon known as the War on Terror, which has been active for a little over a decade now, has succeeded in passing a number of authoritative laws in the USA that have caused adequate debate over the issue of the federal government and national security. Although, the initial stages of the War on Terror was met with little resistance from American citizens due to an understandable surge of fear that engulfed the populace after the tragic attacks on New York City the morning of September 11, 2001; Americans are now beginning to realize the overzealousness of their government’s increased security state and are once again demanding civil liberties over security. This is shown in the massive social movement known as Occupy Wall Street, which began with a series of protests in New York City over two main issues: an unfair justice system that unjustly targets minority parties and the disparity in American income between the middle and upper classes.
The War on Terror thrives today because of a sabotage that has taken place in the USA for control over the fourth estate (a term used to describe news media in a democratic society). It was this sabotage that allowed the administration of President George W. Bush to launch the second American war in Iraq under false claims that that their leader, Saddam Hussein, possessed weapons of mass destruction, or WMDs. This was a massive failure of intelligence not only on the part of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but also on the part of the so-called mainstream American news media, also known as the corporate media. Even after the United Nations (UN) failed to deliver evidence of the WMDs to the international community, the American media persisted with the initial claim simply because they were paid to do so by their one-sided donors. That is that exact opposite of what the media is supposed to do and, unfortunately, it’s how the American media operates now. It is important to understand that money corrupts, which why it should not be involved in politics all, or at least not on a corporate level.
The American media no longer represent the righteous way of life that is journalism, they represent cronyism. Studies have shown that the majority of American citizens do not have faith in what the corporate media outlets tell them. Their main problem is that they are too balanced, meaning that the networks will tell the viewers what a politician says without giving them any context into the reality of what that politician said. This useless style of reporting allows impressionable people to insert their own dogma into the blank template that the corporate media has given them, which only polarizes the political sphere further. The corporate media convey facts because the network executives do not want their writers and anchors to offend the politicians that they deal with in Congress. That is how politics works in the USA now: corporate lobbyists buy their employers influence on the national stage, the politicians pass laws that favor corporate agendas, (in exchange) the corporate news does not report the corruption. That is why the Citizens United v. FEC court case in 2010 was so disastrous to American democracy.
Since the corporate media in the USA does not seem to be doing its job in the field of journalism, many Americans have turned to alternative forms of media and many of these alternative media outlets take immense pride in being independent companies. They are called independent because they do not receive money from corporate contracts but, rather crowdsource donations from their viewers. The internet has caused a decentralization of news media; anyone with an idea can communicate with the world rather than jump through the necessary hoops to get onto a television network. The decentralization of information flow is a critical step in a democratization of a globalized society.
“Just because you don’t take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you.” – Pericles
As a citizen of the democratic-republic that is the United States of America, it is our civic duty to vote for our best interest come Election Day. And, in order to make informed votes, we need newsmen who are beholden to their viewers, not corporate donors who tell them what to say.
Read everything, question everything, and never stop fighting. If you have something to say, say it!