Glenn Greenwald and the Fifth Estate

He has no association with the Fifth Estate Magazine that I’m a fan of, but I think the principle is the same:

The Fourth Estate is supposed to critically scrutinize the First Estate (the establishment power elites). But in our modern world the media has become, to some extent at least, a powerful institution of the establishment. So it needs to be scrutinized by an independent-minded Fifth Estate.

The most powerful among the mainstream media tend to have a liberal bias. I think that explains why Glenn Greenwald tends to focus his critical scrutiny on the liberals.

This from his January 26 “System Update” episode:

“Corporate lobbyists in Washington understand the difference between words and actions. They know, for instance, that in order for Democratic Party politicians to have any chance to win elections it’s necessary for them to rail against the evils of Wall Street and vow to attack structural income and wealth inequality if they win. And that is why we so often see what looks to be a paradox, namely that Democratic politicians, like Joe Biden, who rage against the Wall Street machine and pound their fists on the table in anger over the unfairness of income inequality and large corporate bonuses, nonetheless, end up drowning in campaign cash from Wall Street and their lobbyists, far more so than their opponents. That’s because Wall Street lobbyists are sophisticated enough to know that Democrats do not actually mean a word of what they’re saying.”

So the liberals are upset with him. But I’m not.

Aside from what Glenn Greenwald critiques re: solicitation of Wall Street, corporate, and Big Tech money, I have two other complaints: (a) liberal Democrats are too enamored of statist Big Government pseudo-solutions to problems: and (b) they’re the ones who suppress the Green Party. They work hard to keep the electoral system the province of the duopoly.

So: go get ’em. High fives for Glenn Greenwald and the Fifth Estate.