POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

16Sep/0930

How the Fourth Estate became the Fifth Column

On the heels of Rocketman's post immediately below, I thought to re-post the following...

Repost of 2004 essay written by Daniel P Collins, MD (Naples Florida)

Framers of the Constitution recognized the need for a Free Press to report on governmental action to the citizenry. They accorded unique privileges to the news media to protect and ensure this vital activity. It is now obvious, with the secret ABC memo, and the “60 minutes” debacle, that the media does not know the difference between freedom & license or that privileges always carry concomitant responsibilities. The media has shifted from a legitimate mission of reporting the news to a mission of creating the news. In so doing, it has become the “Fifth Column”*, undermining & eroding the Republic from within. The media manipulation of the election environment to insure a close election, great copy for press & TV, calls for encouragement of visceral hatred of various groups: bad for the nation, but newsworthy. They gleefully & dishonestly set to work. After all, the ends justify the means: the creation of news. Honesty, morality, ethics or National Welfare be damned. The Fifth Column has a job to be done!

*From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Fifth column stands for any clandestine group of people which works inside a nation to undermine its strength (psychological warfare), while at the same time the nation suffers a direct attack from a foreign power. The term was coined by General Mola in a radio address during the Spanish Civil War1936–1939). As a Nationalist general, he sent four of his army columns to capture Madrid, which was being defended at the time by the Republican forces. The general referred to his hidden supporters inside the capital as his fifth column. Originally, the term was used by Leon Trotsky as name for the Fifth Army, which was founded as an elite military unit during the Russian Civil War. In the aftermath, Ernest Hemingway wrote his one and only play entitled The Fifth Column, which depicts the role of the two protagonists, a writer and a journalist, during wartime. The title hints at the similarity of the protagonists with the supporters of Emilio Mola, as both were performing "behind enemy lines" influence.

Daniel P. Collins, Sr. is a retired Pathologist living in Naples, Florida.

Enoch_Root

Person with kids,a beautiful wife, a job. Catholic of the Latin Rite.

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  1. Edgell McHickfistter
    September 16th, 2009 - 06:28

    The cheapness of his rhetoric would have found no takers at the serious end of the journalism profession. Be glad your Dad found his niche in medicine.

    Maybe it’s generational, my Dad is sort’a a right-wing crank as well.

    Anyone here ever been in possession of a real press card besides me?

    The only government I attempted to overthrow was Putin’s. Crank on that, blowhards, and the fact I know first hand how utterly baseless and ignorant your silly-assed assertions are.

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    • Enoch_Root
      September 16th, 2009 - 07:25

      mcfistedallaht – KOOL AID – and anyway, the good Doctor has more to say for himself in this one lifetime than you could ever hope to achieve in 30 or even 50. Plus, even at 76 and blind, he could likely kick your ass! We’ve been shitting on people like you for generations on generations. You must’ve gotten your mother’s genes… did she give you her skirts too?

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  2. Edgell McHickfistter
    September 16th, 2009 - 08:28

    Dan Rather was fired and rightfully discredited was he not, or was the good doctor foreshadowing what would become of Fox News in 2008?

    I’m sure your Dad is very intelligent, and maybe he’s the greatest Dad in the world, but his metanarrative speaks naively and topically of an entire profession. I doubt your Dad would argue my point. I wish him all the best, and best we leave it at that.

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  3. RC
    September 16th, 2009 - 08:41

    The contents are correct, as far as they go, but they have a time limited context, which is pretty common as most of us judge things based on our own.

    Any idea of the media being some sort of 1st Amendment sponsered watchdog really only dates from the mid to later 20th century. Throughout most of the history of this country media has been widely known as yellow journalism, opinions and scandals. Partisanship not only existed but was mandatory as the people that published did so for like minded people. The real fault was the beginning of the popular belief that journalists were some sort of noble paladins when they were/are anything but. Now that more and more people recognize that media and journalists are the partisans they are we are getting back to reality, which is a good thing. We just need to keep pushing that cart down the road until people largely view media as the entertainment source they are and nothing more.

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  4. Edgell McHickfistter
    September 16th, 2009 - 09:00

    Back to your never having worked a day in tEh MeDiA (!! 1 !! 1 !!), most of the media do thankless jobs as beat writers covering beats that they have little or no real interest in, at least they don’t after covering it for any length of time, and they have no partisan intent.

    Show me a beat writer who is hell bent on slanting a re-cap of the state high school girls volleyball championship or a Home and Garden section editor who constantly drives home a left-wing embed. Show me.

    Or maybe you’re solely describing the political media or Op/Ed writers whenever you strip all reality-based meaning from your “MSM” and “the media” descriptors, as in using “media” as a poorly crafted metaphor.

    Want me to blow you away? The NYT Op/Ed’s page is designed to be liberal leaning while the other flagship NY paper, The Wall Street Journal, designs its Op/Ed section to the right. I hope you didn’t faint!

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    • Enoch_Root
      September 16th, 2009 - 09:14

      edge – it’s not editorials in the editorial section that are at issue – it is the deliberate omission of facts, creative edits, modified images, one-sidedness of content, and general inability of the Old Media to deliver “fair and balanced” – and, no, I don’t think FoxNews is Fair and Balanced, as they claim.

      If there was/is such a thing as Journalism in the spirit of having some sort of value to people interested in issues, it is not to be found among the Big News Industry Establishment.

      “What we have here is a Straight Journalism Gap” – and Blogs, in my opinion (even when they don’t share my opinion) do a much finer job of reporting. If nothing else, the packaging generally does not pretend to be healthy yet contain a McDonald’s Big Mac Meal.

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  5. Bob Reed
    September 16th, 2009 - 09:34

    edge, I would like references to your reporting career, because all I have ever seen you write are attack commentary and diatrabes against those you dislike; and not once have I ever seen you provide a link for any of your assertions.

    I think you do have it in you, and have virtually begged you to write a good piece on Obama’s planned reforms for the financial system, explaing how it would help secure the system and benefit the free market, individuals, and the entire economy. Indeed, feel free to apply your financial acumen and systemic understanding to help us analyze what’s going on in the economy; because regardless of our study and interest we are but dilletantes compared to you.

    Do it! Do something constructive instead of simply existing to tear things down…

    Leave that to the demolition men…

    DO IT!

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  6. Bob Reed
    September 16th, 2009 - 09:47

    Enoch,
    Your Dad had a point about the media sensationalizing the news for their ratings benefit; that is part and parcel of the need for TV to be a profitable business.

    RC is correct too, in that save for a short period where there was the pretense of objectivity, newspapers have traditionally had a particular slant intheir coverage. However, except for the most scandolous, yellow jounalism, rags this slant was chiefly restricted to the editorials, political cartoons, and op-ed pages. edge cites a good example by comparing the NY TImes and WSJ.

    The real confusion comes in with the advent of the cable news channels, and the belief by many “low information” people that, “if itis on TV it’s, da troooooof!” Unfortunately, in their desire for ad revenues, cable TV news has succumbed in general to the most vile style of yellow journalism-even in what is supposed to be their straight news programs.

    I disagree with you on Fox’s slant; I believe their straight news programs are the most objective and unbiased of any, a fact that is backed up by both their vierwing demographic and poll research data.

    But in general the televised news programs have an agenda, and a meta-narrative, that they try and pass off to the nation. There have been several vivid examples of that lately; including their cheerleading for Mr. Obama in the last election.

    So in view of that, your Dad is correct, the major outlets of the legacy media are a fifth column for a particular ideology, and will support any politician that adhere’s to it!

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  7. Enoch_Root
    September 16th, 2009 - 10:08

    Type your comment here

    Bob Reed :

    I disagree with you on Fox’s slant; I believe their straight news programs are the most objective and unbiased of any, a fact that is backed up by both their vierwing demographic and poll research data.

    May be so that they are “…the most objective and unbiased of any…” But that leaves a lot of room for improvement.

    And, in any case, if I get your meaning regarding popularity or perception as a gauge of quality, I need only point you to Top 40 radio.

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  8. Bob Reed
    September 16th, 2009 - 11:01

    That’s also true enoch,
    As far as fox goes, I was only referring to the fact that their audience, when polled, reports an fairly even ideological divide of left and right, plus a fair share of independants. And that’s probably why their audience share ratings are so good.

    Of course, I’m not speaking of Beck nor Hannity; I’m sure few liberals watch that programming. Heck, I’m about as conservative as they come and I don’t watch thise programs!

    Fair treatment and openminded-ness are what most people desire; and it’s that kind of thing that allows Fox’s straight news programs, and even Bill O’Reilly to enjoy such widespread success and inclusive ideological appeal…

    And for those that want the echo chamber? There’s always MSNBC! But they pay for it in the ratings…

    But since they are the propaganda arm of GE, a company fully invested in Obama’s “green jobs” agenda, I guess the bottom line really doesn’t matter…

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  9. Edgell McHickfistter
    September 16th, 2009 - 13:36

    Fox News is a barometer for American stupid. And it’s the reason why I won’t attempt to explain that because the U.S. dollar is a carrying currency that it’s been coupled to inverse pricing against commodities. Commodity prices rise, the dollar goes down, and that’s been occurring off and on at differing trading stops for the last 18-months on dealer desks.

    Any bonehead that follows the financial markets already knows the above, just as any literate bonehead knows what the 5th and 4th Estates refer to.

    I ain’t Steve Doocey, who I strongly believe is a annoying fuckin’ bonehead. I ain’t Fox News, a simplified to the extreme bonehead filter. In fact I’d rather scratch my eyes out with my boner, thank you very much.

    Now Euro-midgets are another story. Trading in Euro-midgets is as hot as your gram pappies’ brush peppers. I’ll go there. There and reverse O-ring debentures, where trading is always brisk.

    Fox News! Sometimes Semtex is the only answer.

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  10. Edgell McHickfistter
    September 16th, 2009 - 13:53

    Enoch_Root :

    Edgell – is that you?

    For generations you woolly muffs have been asking the same question. Yes, and I’m still British, still your better, still your Victorian Overlord by writ of the Queen.

    You may serve me my Guinness now, laddie.

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  11. Bob Reed
    September 16th, 2009 - 14:41

    edge,
    I ain’t no Steve Doocy fan either, but you’re completely wrong about Fox being a, “simplified to the extreme bonehead filter”, or when you say that they are, “A barometer for American stupid”. It’s an asset to be able to explain complx phenomena in terms that laypersons can easily understand; and the mark of someone who really understands the subject that they’re examining.

    “…And it’s the reason why I won’t attempt to explain that because the U.S. dollar is a carrying currency that it’s been coupled to inverse pricing against commodities. Commodity prices rise, the dollar goes down…”

    Is it because you can’t find the words? Because what you say is not necessarily the case. If currencies were of fixed value, relative to each other or some base metric, and demand for a commidity-other than the base metric-increased in a country where that commodity wasn’t organically available, who would that lead to a decrease in the value of the currency of the providing nation?

    You need to explain what you mean better than that, because it’s not redily apparent which of the things you mentioned, the currency of the commodity, is the “chicken” and which is the “egg”…

    We’re all ready for you to lay the benefits of your knowledge and experience on us…

    Then, you’ll get your Guinness!

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  12. Enoch_Root
    September 16th, 2009 - 14:42

    HA! – if only you knew our lineage, sir. You would kneel, pleeb.

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  13. Edgell McHickfistter
    September 16th, 2009 - 18:54

    Bob Reed :

    Is it because you can’t find the words? Because what you say is not necessarily the case. If currencies were of fixed value, relative to each other or some base metric, and demand for a commidity-other than the base metric-increased in a country where that commodity wasn’t organically available, who would that lead to a decrease in the value of the currency of the providing nation?
    You need to explain what you mean better than that, because it’s not redily apparent which of the things you mentioned, the currency of the commodity, is the “chicken” and which is the “egg”…
    We’re all ready for you to lay the benefits of your knowledge and experience on us…
    Then, you’ll get your Guinness!

    The prices of commodities free float. The value of the U.S. dollar free floats against other currencies, they call it FOREX trading. Two different markets and two different trading desks, commodities and currencies. What you’re asking about about is the EUR/USD currency contract, that’s Euro’ value against the U.S. dollar, which is about 1.47, meaning it costs $1.47 U.S. dollars to buy 1 Euro, so a strengthening dollar would cause the 1.47 quote to fall, a weak dollar would cause the 1.47 quote to rise.

    To buy oil on the commodity exchanges one needs to do so in U.S. Dollars. The quoted price for oil on all trading around the world is in U.S. dollars.

    Here’s where you need to understand a little of supply and demand. The higher the supply of X puts pressure on the price of X downward unless it is matched by demand.

    As large third-world countries increase in size they purchase more oil to satisfy the needs of their larger economies, think China and India. As the entire market, buyers and sellers, in oil increases so does the market for trading in dollars as an after effect. The National Bank of India sells Rupees and keeps a currency account of U.S. dollars so that it and other Indian oil companies can do large transactions on the buy side of oil.

    This might sound as if there’d be a huge demand for dollars, but alas that was yesterday, when the Petro-dollar market, as they call it, did drive the dollar up against all other currencies. Today all countries already have adequate Petro-dollar reserves, yet they prefer to equal weight their national government’s currency reserves, and to do that they’ve been selling dollars and acquiring Euros to balance out the ratio of U.S. dollars to Euros.

    So what we’ve been seeing is dollar stretching from the commodity markets and dollar selling by the State fund market. In other words a ton of U.S. dollars are needed for transaction purposes only. These transaction dollars, or Petro-dollars, have created a huge supply of dollars floating around the world. Increased supply = downward price pressure.

    This is but one factor in FOREX pricing, but it’s been a big one as of late, as in every time oil goes up the price of the U.S. dollar goes down, remembering what I said about the inverse price coupling.

    Will the inverse price oil-to-dollar couple last forever? No. It’s the latest trend in pricing that’s all. How the markets adjust their pricing model in the future is anyone’s guess, but pricing components rise and fall in weight slowly, not dramatically.

    I’ve wasted 30-minutes typing this.

    I’d much rather squirt hot sauce on your bicycle’s banana seat and ride off into the sunset, frankly.

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  14. Edgell McHickfistter
    September 16th, 2009 - 19:05

    Enoch_Root :

    HA! – if only you knew our lineage, sir. You would kneel, pleeb.

    Haha, when I reach for my Imperialist’s bullwhip it’s you who flinch. Get your history straight, Bono.

    I make the music, you pose and sing. The fuckin’ Edge!

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    • Enoch_Root
      September 16th, 2009 - 20:25

      you friggin moron – the Irish part is for fighting – the English part is for the dentist – but yes McButtFisted – I have both – straight from Thomas Howard Arundel, earl of Arundel and Surrey – you can use your imagination as to where the Howard “bits” fit into English history. And as for the Brit part of the family arriving in the Americas in 1640 – Matthew Howard, first Gov of Maryland… well, let’s just say your family was still building hamlets out of straw. So, bow naive. Bow to your crown, you wanker.

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    • Enoch_Root
      September 16th, 2009 - 20:26

      And of course, fuck the queen.

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    • Enoch_Root
      September 16th, 2009 - 20:27

      For good measure fuck the queen and the horse she sleeps with – or was that Catherine the Great of Russia???

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  15. Edgell McHickfistter
    September 16th, 2009 - 20:59

    I could care less of your ancestry, other than to spark a rise in your pants for my pure British blood, ahahaha.

    I’d trot you before the Council of Blood and have you press your mutt’s lips and tongue on my crescent ring.

    Those were some serious days, eh.

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  16. Bob Reed
    September 16th, 2009 - 21:01

    Thanks for the discussion edge…

    Don’t the great amount of US securities out there influence that at all?

    I’ll ponder all that while wiping the hot seat off of my bicycle seat…

    So you aren’t going to have too much of a lead!

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  17. Bob Reed
    September 16th, 2009 - 21:09

    hot seat= hot sauce…

    Haven’t been in the hot seat since I transferred to NAVSEA…

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  18. Edgell McHickfistter
    September 17th, 2009 - 04:43

    Bob Reed :

    Thanks for the discussion edge…
    Don’t the great amount of US securities out there influence that at all?
    I’ll ponder all that while wiping the hot seat off of my bicycle seat…
    So you aren’t going to have too much of a lead!

    U.S. securities? I’m not following you, camera guy.

    The U.S. dollar is the carrying currency for crude oil trading. The world is awash in oil and dollars. People want oil, but dollars not so much. We also have a current account deficit that keeps pumping dollars out, but that’s a topic for another day.

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  19. Bob Reed
    September 17th, 2009 - 07:26

    So true, a topic for another day…Now I’d advise you to ponder the nuance of Bernoulli’s equation, that too will be a topic for another day!

    Did you know that Leonard Euler developed many of his famous equations at the Russian Academy at St. Petersburg!

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  20. Risa Gruca
    June 8th, 2010 - 14:04

    I feel like I’m getting old! From back in the day compared to now, putting something decent together has gotten pretty simple.

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  21. short sale expert
    November 26th, 2010 - 20:27

    Since we’re discussing the How the Fourth Estate became the Fifth Column topic, State is one of the most essential investments that you will ever make. Several men and women discover that buying land via a land auction is often a much less pricey method to add a bit of security to their future by adding the valuable asset of land to their lives. The easiest method to do this is to visit land auctions.

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