The Fall of the Fourth Estate

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.” – Mark Twain.
“Quote me as saying I was misquoted.” – Groucho Marx.

“…don’t believe your lying eyes and ears.” – George Orwell.

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However much you hate the media, it’s not enough. The last several months and years have been particularly unkind to the legacy media—an outcome that is not undeserved. The media’s slobbering love affair with certain politicians and ideological narratives, along with its vilification of those it disagrees with, has always existed but has only grown more fervent over the last decade or two. For example, the gaslighting by the previous administration over “cheap fakes”—unedited videos highlighting former President Biden’s “senior moments”—was eagerly parroted by legacy media outlets, especially in early June of last year [2024]. This is just one of many instances demonstrating that modern journalism is in an ideologically biased freefall.

To further spotlight this unscrupulous and duplicitous industry, what had been an amicable media suddenly turned on Biden following his disastrous debate with President Trump, contributing to his soft-coup ouster by Democratic Party elites. Former Vice President Harris immediately went from a political liability to an astroturfed media darling almost overnight. Similarly, the ABC presidential debate between Trump and Harris was so obviously— and even admittedly—biased that it substantively damaged the network’s reputation among apolitical Americans.

The two assassination attempts on Trump also exposed the exponentially increasing descent of the Fourth Estate. Initial headlines obfuscated the fact that Trump had been wounded or even what had transpired at the Butler County, PA, rally on July 13th [2024]; many news outlets vaguely reported a fall or the Secret Service unexpectedly rushing him offstage. Likewise, the second assassination attempt [September 15, 2024] was downplayed by most media organizations—or worse, they victim-shamed Trump with more gaslighting claims about political rhetoric.

Of course, newspapers dating back to British colonial rule and soapbox pundits in Roman public squares were still biased and highly partisan. However, at least they varied in opinion and analysis of events, rather than forming an almost complete echo chamber—especially for the previous administration. Today, news sources and opinion pieces in the “alternate economy” across social media and podcasts have provided some aberrant views for public consumption, which the new administration has acknowledged by granting them seats in the White House press room. Unfortunately, most people in the Western world, especially the U.S., want their news canned quickly—not necessarily accurately—and told how to think so they don’t have to expend energy. The public obediently laps up “only the news fit to print,” while these organizations continue to shovel exponentially increasing loads of cow manure into our eyes and ears, unopposed.

The fact that you can switch between many local and cable news programs throughout the day and hear the exact same phrases repeated—parroting certain ideological or political narratives—is a stark reminder of the homogeneity of thought in modern journalism. It also serves as a call to action, urging the public to seek diverse news sources and engage in critical thinking. Compounding this problem is the redefinition of words, the misuse of certain terms, and the relentless blitzing of readers and audiences to invoke specific thoughts and emotions. “Insurrection,” anyone? How about “Pandemic of the unvaccinated?” Or everyone’s favorite, “Russia!!”

Let’s also consider how many multi-million-dollar lawsuits some media outlets have had to pay for defamation: the Covington school kid, Kyle Rittenhouse, President Trump, and countless others. As stated earlier, the focus is now on being first, not necessarily correct—and it’s hitting them in the pocketbook. Similarly, many of these outlets have suffered massive drops in valuation and readership/viewership, resulting in significant layoffs.

Then there are the buffoons like Leslie Stahl, Nicole Wallace, Joy Reid, and Rachel Maddow, who discredit the industry with either their willful ignorance or malicious deceit. As Adam Carolla masterfully put it, “They’re either stupid or lying.”

In closing, these legacy media outlets can continue to play Pravda if they want—at their own peril. The public is rejecting them at an exponentially increasing rate in favor of the alternate economy that allows them to believe their own lying eyes and ears—especially since Trump Derangement Syndrome took hold and the pandemic exposed their propagation of state-sponsored disinformation.

Again, however much you hate the media, it’s not enough.

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Ben Varlese is a former U.S. Army Mountain Infantry Platoon Sergeant and served in domestic and overseas roles from 2001-2018, including, from 2003-2005, as a sniper section leader. Besides his military service, Ben worked on the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq’s protective security detail in various roles, and since 2018, he has also provided security consulting services for public and private sectors, including tactical training, physical and information security, executive protection, protective intelligence, risk management, insider threat mitigation, and anti-terrorism. He earned a B.A. and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies from American Military University, a graduate certificate in Cyber Security from Colorado State University and is currently in his second year of AMU’s Doctorate of Global Security program.

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.