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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I think this is a reaction to the irresponsibility
the 'fourth estate' has used in reporting probably all of these kids lifetimes.
Reporters are now making the stories not just getting all sides to the story and
letting the public know what is happening. In many cases they have created
stories that were out and out lies and when caught seek many ways to justify
themselves dishonoring the institutions they work for and misleading the public.
I think they are just asking that someone be in charge so there is something you
can trust when you read it. I wouldn't want the government in charge of the
reporters but I sure want the reporters to be much more honest. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>PK</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=Tbertruss@aol.com
href="mailto:Tbertruss@aol.com">Tbertruss@aol.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=donovanarnold@hotmail.com
href="mailto:donovanarnold@hotmail.com">donovanarnold@hotmail.com</A> ; <A
title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Monday, January 31, 2005 12:57
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] 36% say Newspapers
Need "government approval"</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0 face=Arial size=2
FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><BR>All:<BR><BR>Many people in the USA don't
appear to understand the absolutely critical role played by one of the
fundamental institutions in our culture, the "fourth estate" of the
media. If this branch of our democratic system is not functioning as it
should, as "the guardians of democracy, defenders of the public interest (see
bottom of this post)" then we do not have a democracy.<BR><BR>Consider the
shocking results of this recent survey:<BR><BR>Some U.S. Students Say Press
Freedoms Go Too Far<BR><IMG height=24
src="http://cdn.news.aol.com/aolnews_providers/71_article_logo" width=102
border=0 DATASIZE="1177"><BR>By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY<BR><BR>One in three U.S.
high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more
say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them,
according to a survey being released today.<BR><BR>The survey of 112,003
students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get "government approval" of
stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13%
have no opinion.<BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"
BACK="#ffffff"><BR>01/31/2005 07:04 <BR><BR><A
href="http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050131072009990029">http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050131072009990029</A><BR><BR>---------------------------<BR><BR>Over
a third of high school students in the USA think the government should control
newspaper content! If true, this is a colossal failure of our
culture. These results sound more like the Soviet Union than the leader
of the "democratic free world." While we are ostensibly spreading
democracy at the end of a gun barrel to other nations, we are failing to
educate fundamental democratic values in the
USA.<BR><BR>--------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>The Mass
Media as Fourth Estate<BR><BR><A
href="http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/index.html">http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/index.html</A><BR><BR>The
mass media are often attacked by left-wing critics: from within the broadly <A
href="javascript:parent.remoteStart('../popups/marx.html')">Marxist </A>vein
of <A href="javascript:parent.remoteStart('../popups/critical.html')">critical
theory</A> they are criticized for reproducing the dominant bourgeois culture;
from within the 'political economy' vein of research, they are attacked for
representing the interests of those who own them (see, for example, <A
href="javascript:parent.remoteStart('../popups/chomsky.html')">Chomsky</A>'s
'<A href="javascript:parent.remoteStart('../popups/propmod.html')">propaganda
model</A>'). <BR><BR>Carlyle's definition of the fourth
estate<BR><BR>However, from the perspective of those researchers who see the
media as situated within the model of a pluralist liberal democracy, the mass
media are often seen as fulfilling the vitally important rôle of <I>fourth
estate</I>, the guardians of democracy, defenders of the public interest. The
term fourth estate is frequently attributed to the nineteenth century
historian Carlyle, though he himself seems to have attributed it to Edmund
Burke:<BR><BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"
TYPE="CITE">Burke said there were Three Estates in Parliament; but, in the
Reporters' Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important than
they all. It is not a figure of speech, or a witty saying; it is a literal
fact, .... Printing, which comes necessarily out of Writing, I say often, is
equivalent to Democracy: invent Writing, Democracy is inevitable. .....
Whoever can speak, speaking now to the whole nation, becomes a power, a
branch of government, with inalienable weight in law-making, in all acts of
authority. It matters not what rank he has, what revenues or garnitures: the
requisite thing is that he have a tongue which others will listen to; this
and nothing more is requisite<BR><BR></BLOCKQUOTE>Carlyle (<A
href="javascript:parent.bookWindow('../books/bookscd.html%23Carlyle_1905')">1905</A>)
pp.349-350<BR>
<P align=right><BR>Carlyle here was describing the newly found power of the
man of letters, and, by extension,<BR>the newspaper reporter. In his account,
it seems that the press are a new fourth estate added to the three existing
estates (as they were conceived of at the time) running the country:
priesthood, aristocracy and commons. Other modern commentators seem to
interpret the term fourth estate as meaning the fourth 'power' which checks
and counterbalances the three state 'powers' of executive, legislature and
judiciary.<BR>
<P align=left><BR>-------------------------------------------<BR><BR>V2020
Post by Ted Moffett</P>
<P></P></FONT>
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