Source: CounterPunch
by Binoy Kampmark
“The WikiLeaks project was always going to put various noses out of joint in the journalistic profession. Soaked and blighted by sloth, easily bought, perennially envious, a good number of the Fourth Estate have always preferred to remain uncritical of power and sympathetic to its brutal exercise. For those reasons, the views of Thomas Carlyle, quoting the opinion of Edward Burke in his May 1840 lecture that ‘there were Three Estates in Parliament; but in the Reporters’ Gallery yonder, there sat a Fourth Estate more important far than they all’ seem quaintly misplaced, certainly in a modern context. The media response to the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from his scandalous captivity … provides a fascinating insight into a ghastly, craven and sycophantic tendency all too common among the plodding hacks.” (06/28/24)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/06/28/assanges-release-exposing-the-craven-media-stable/