The cast against the media - by the media
Khai Le
“For decades, the pollsters at Gallup have been asking Americans if they trust their media. In 1974, the year Woodward and Bernstein brought an end to Richard Nixon’s presidency, 69 percent of them did. In a poll released last year, that number was at a historic low. Today, the only institutions Americans have less faith in than television news (21 percent) and newspapers (20 percent) are Congress and “big business.” That’s pretty damn low — humiliatingly low, especially for a group of people who fancy themselves members of “the Fourth Estate.” (For those of you who have never worked in the media, which is basically the only place anyone would still use that 18th-century term: It refers to the power of the press to balance that of the three estates — clergy, aristocracy, and the well-to-do — in the British Parliament.) The other three estates don’t really exist in 21st-century America, but the fourth’s high opinion of its role in the body politic has been pretty constant.”