The One Hundred Days: Fooling Some of the People All of the Time

April 30, 2009

The thirteen softballs lobbed at President Barack Obama at yesterday’s third prime- time press conference was, quite possibly, the most pathetic demonstration of mass sycophantic servile flattery ever put forth by that once plausibly respectable group of journalists known as the White House Press Corps. What has become of that once estimable group heretofore referred to as The Fourth Estate?

Just what was The Fourth Estate? The past tense is used here because by all that remains of that once feared organization  has become an arm of the emerging Euro-Socialist state that has beset America.

Let us turn to that venerable source of information and history. In Wikipedia we find:

The earliest use of the term fourth Estate to mean the press,  is found in Thomas Carlyle‘s book On Heroes and Hero Worship (1841) in which he wrote:

“

[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)[1]

”

If, indeed, Burke did make the statement Carlyle attributes to him, his remark may have been in the back of Carlyle’s mind when he wrote in his French Revolution (1837), “A Fourth Estate, of Able Editors, springs up.”^[2] In this context, the other three estates are those of the French States-General: the church, the nobility and the commoners.

Author Oscar Wilde wrote:

“	In old days men had the rack. Now they have the press. That is an improvement certainly. But still it is very bad, and wrong, and demoralizing. Somebody — was it Burke? — called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time no doubt. But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three. The Lords Temporal say nothing, the Lords Spiritual have nothing to say, and the House of Commons has nothing to say and says it. We are dominated by Journalism.	”
—Oscar Wilde , [3]

So, we were once dominated by journalism? The press, as referred to as  “the rack,”  was certainly at one time a formidable force bent on reporting the truth as objectively as human nature could allow. The press was given, and certainly still enjoys,  some legislated privileges such as our Constitution’s First Amendment, ample administratively supported “access” privileges, etc. What major public or private organization does not have in place a “Press Liasion Officer”, Press Officer” or “Spin Doctor”? These privileges or “rights” were bestowed upon the press because it was the right thing to do to protect the general public from all the really nasty and corrupt things that governments tend to do to their populaces. We’ve all heard the litany of what a “Strong Press” does for us all and what these defenders of the realm they think themselves to be. And we’ve all seen what complete ego-maniacs the MSM anchors have become in lording their reporting and analysis upon us as if we were sheep lined up for slaughter. This self perception of their divine mission and importance has evolved from a necessary and most noble check against tyranny into an elitist club of Socialist propagandists.

How are rational people to think otherwise? How is it that this Fourth Estate, given a status on a par with clergy, nobility, and the common man, has totally lost its vision of its original charge?

One has only to follow the conduct of that heretofore esteemed group as it reports on the day to day activities of our President to see what this once respected Fourth Estate has become.

The White House Press Corps is now an oh so select group of fawning and oh so gentile group when given the unique opportunity to question our nation’s leader about the unrelenting state of crises we find ourselves embroiled in. So what do they do? Lob softballs like “Gee,  Mr President what have you found to be enchanting in your first 100 days? What!? That pretty brunette was so enamored, according to Laura Ingraham, that if BO had asked her to dance she would have willingly submitted. Sheesh!

This is what becomes to a small and very influential group that has exclusive access to a singularly influential and charismatic personality such as Barack Obama. He’s their President. Their guy. They love the guy because he is not George Bush, is not a Republican, is not a conservative, is not cutting mesquite in the West Texas heat. They get to go to Hawaii now. They love the guy because he represents everything they learned in their commie college journalism class: that information is power and power is information. And that when this information is manipulated and controlled and distorted by the myopia of fanatical devotion one can even sell salt to sailor

Now that  both the Washington & White House Press Corps have whorred themselves into this duplicitous position of blind adoration they, in their blindness, will continue to be duped into believing that they are the heralds of a new America bent on change for the good of the masses. They will continue to proclaim their adoration and continue to issue “passes” where those predecessors less worthy of their acclaim fell to their mighty pen.

Yes, America, Mr Lincoln had it spot on with his famous quote of “You can fool some of the people all of the time…” The best modern day example of this is our once formidable Fourth Estate  whom, it seems, is now fooled all of the time. The charlatan before them will continue to manipulate them. To this end most Americans have lost all respect for the MSM that claim to “report objectively” to us. They are dupes and patsies being manipulated for pure political gain.

Oh, BTW, how’s the new puppie doing? Hope he’s adjusting well.

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