Major news outlets under fire for 'tiptoeing' around Trump admin lies after Pretti killing

[Ol Janx Spirit]

16. With the First Amendment, the Constitution envisions a "fourth estate" in specifically granting...

...freedom of "the press." This power was intended to wield political influence and help--with the assistance of the freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and the right to petition--be a check on the government by "we the people."

The media has decided over the last 250 years that its job is not to wield this power of influence, but to merely report the "news."

This is in large part the fault of journalism becoming a profession taught in schools that demanded journalists not allow themselves to be "part of the story." This ethos created the bothsideserism we find in the MSM today. Journalists are taught to speak through interviewing others; and to always get the "other side" of a story.

There are ways in which this has served us well, but it has gutted the concept of a fourth estate intended to keep the government in check.

So now a fifth estate is emerging: bloggers, independent journalists, and citizens with phone cameras. This fifth estate isn't tiptoeing around anything, but it is also subject to the blustery winds of easy to create and disseminate disinformation.

The question is: will any of it now be able to keep this government in check?

Even the founders envisioned a US government that would outright lie to the American people, but did they envision a population that would accept it with a shrug? Probably not.