The Fourth Council Estate

Power in this great nation has always been a finely balanced thing. The freedom of the press should ensure that politicians are bound by their words, actions and deeds, but the question we have to ask ourselves is what happens when the fourth estate takes that freedom and corrupts it?

Every major newspaper in this country (possibly not The Guardian but evidence suggests The Observer did) has at some point used dishonourable methods to acquire the private information of individuals. This in itself is not necessarily the cause of the fall of the fourth estate, but rather this was the beginning of the fall. Dishonourable methods have lead to illegal means and, as the information commissioner in his 2006 report “What Price Freedom” informs us, nearly every paper has engaged in illegal dealings of personal information.

Although the Murdoch empire has become far too powerful, it is being used as a scapegoat by those other media establishments who are also guilty of using the same tactics. Whether they may be illegal or merely dishonourable, one has to ask how this situation was allowed to continue? How was it allowed to progress from dishonourable and downright dodgy to clearly being on the wrong side of the law?  With no MP, Minister or Prime Minister being willing or able to put in place the checks and balances that could stop the fourth estate overpowering the political class or assaulting the freedoms of this country’s citizenry.

The leader of the opposition may have called for new laws, new controls and the end to media empires but if Mr Murdoch’s empire survives this they will not forgive or forget Mr Milliband’s attacks. Mr Milliband is taking a massive risk in assaulting the press in such an aggressive and reckless  manner and although parliament is currently in agreement on the need for action, he forgets to easily that he needs the press just like everybody else.

Media in this country cannot effectively be controlled by parliament. No matter the outcry at how close they are to the political class, the fourth estate must always and will always have a very unsettling relationship with politicians. This in itself is a necessity. The need for a blurred line between journalists and the political class has been known since the creation of the lobby press over a century ago and the more we push the politicians away from the press the less informed and involved the average voter will become.

Although the necessity for said blurred line will in all likelihood never completely diminish, the need for distance, and increased distance, is incredibly important. We have created and must maintain this new level of separation. No individual should ever again be allowed to exert private control over prime ministers or politicians. Mr Milliband is right on this issue, but where he his wrong is that separating journalists and editors from their political acquaintances is not a good thing.


Newspapers will always have agendas as long as voters have beliefs and ideologies. Those agendas exist to reflect those ideologies. Mr Milliband ignores this at his own peril. If he cannot foster the support from left wing papers, let alone those on the right, he may find himself in an even weaker position at the next election. After all the Daily Mirror is one of the worst offenders, committing more than twice the number of known dishonourable and possibly illegal activities compared to the News of the World.