With 2024 in the rearview mirror and 2025 just begun, perhaps a moment of reflection is warranted for the not-so-sudden demise of the formerly vaunted Fourth Estate. Its position atop the cultural landscape has been rejected by much of the Western world, and it exists now as an artifact that resides in nostalgia more than zeitgeist. It was an avoidable self-immolation. But what will rise from the ashes? And will the fresh phoenix be any better?
The Fourth Estate King Is Dead …
While some lament the death of journalism, it is rather the organs through which modern events are seen that suffer under the weight of history – and, more importantly, historical revisionism. The basic principles of news gathering and reporting remain largely unchanged, but Fourth Estate gatekeeping imposes a fractal filter: If it doesn’t fit the narrative, it doesn’t make the page.
A case in point: In the aftermath of the 2024 election, newsrooms sought to stanch the bleeding by casting their nets for “conservative voices.” This tokenism suggests that – to borrow a phrase from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias – the news purveyors “whose frown / And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command / Tell that its sculptor well those passions read.” The owners, editors, and publishers were well aware that they were reading from the same hymnal and fully understood that they were purposely ditching the rubric for opposing voices.
It was a gamble that the Barack Obama era rewarded. But as Ovid correctly noted, “Times change, and we change with them."*
A Trust Deficit
A Statista study found that just 32% of American adults trust the “news media most of the time.” This is not unique to the United States. Across the Anglosphere, there is a pervasive plurality of mistrust. Australia reaches the heady climes of 40% trust, Canada is at 39%, and the United Kingdom is rivaling the United States at 36%.
And here’s the rub: The 2024 numbers are not much different from those of 2023. The legacy media was well aware that the public was skeptical; instead of trying to remedy the situation, the media Masters of the Universe doubled down in the hopes that Vice President Kamala Harris would become the next president and the situation could continue as normal.
As President Ronald Reagan reminded us, “Status quo, you know, is Latin for 'the mess we're in.’”
Meet the New King …
As the Fourth Estate gasps its final breath of credibility, the new kid on the block is the alternative media. Consider these statements:
Fox is the most widely watched cable news network.
Fox News primetime averaged just 1.85 million viewers.
It lost 20% of its viewers in the last year.
If this is Fox’s situation, how are the likes of CNN and MSNBC faring? So where is the American public getting news?
Sites like our very own Liberty Nation News have seen a massive uptick in readers and viewers these last few years. The social media platform X is now rated the top download for news apps in roughly 100 countries. Joe Rogan is the undisputed podcast king of the world, boasting roughly 30 million followers across Spotify and YouTube. And video channels by the thousands have a bevy of viewers and subscribers who are looking for a different perspective.
People have choices now that were unavailable just a decade ago. They can ditch purveyors with the click of a button and still be informed by myriad other sources. The legacy media assumed it had a stranglehold on news – and acted like it. The industry was dismissive and agenda-driven to the point where it could safely castigate half of its potential audience as racists and not feel the brunt. Those days are long gone.
To return to Shelley: “Nothing beside remains. Round the decay / Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
But at the edge of that desert, a new media oasis awaits the hardy traveler.
*Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis.
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