As Rome burns, the Fourth Estate Smiles

[New Breed Leader]

Great blog post from The Establishment Bar:

If the past decade has taught us anything, it's that our media failed us when we needed them most. When the most dangerous man ever to run for higher office enter the scene in 2015, the media had countless opportunities to bury him before he ever got started. The housing discrimination lawsuit. The use of undocumented labor. The six bankruptcies. Stiffing hundreds of contractors. Trump University. The two dozen rape and sexual assault allegations. A single one of these would have completely derailed a major party presidential candidate in previous election cycles. Hell, we lost Howard Dean because of an akward scream in 2004. But with Trump it was different. With Trump there was so much there that our media not only chose to ignore a single thing, they chose to ignore it all.

https://establishmentbar.blogspot.com/2026/03/as-rome-burns-fourth-estate-smiles.html

[Walleye]

1. Yep, Americans fell for the scam. It's their fault not all the media.

[popsdenver]

20. Perfect Title for book about the last 45+ years:

WHILE THE NATION SLEPT.........................

"They" were all walking down the jungle path, swatting at mosquitoes, and oblivious to the herd of charging elephants.....pun intended............

I would imagine that there were many here, that watched HWBush, Corruptly and Using Treason install Reagan in the White House, so that HW and his CABAL could run things from the shadows.......

Many of us were screaming from the roof tops, and were put down as leftist fanatics.....there were even a group of so called "Reagan Dems" who attacked us........

And here we are today...............

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Which of those things was not known? NT

[UpInArms]

3. The media polished his turds

They did not just ignore them.

[CozyMystery]

4. I agree.

I was super angry when Biden was president because the media was still covering Trump, and quite heartily.

Meanwhile, I didn't wake up every morning wondering what horrific thing Biden had done, because he doesn't do stuff like that. I'm sure millions felt just like I did -- great appreciation for Biden.

[OGBuzz]

5. The media wanted a crazy reality show broadcast live from the White House.

[ananda]

6. The media has been failing us for many years.

MSNBC fired Phil Donahue for no good reason.

And CBS fired Dan Rather for no good reason.

And some Democrats haven't been helpful either,
moderates like Joe Biden who voted for Thomas,
DINO's like Lieberman, and of course the SCOTUS
of Florida 2000.

[Katinfl]

32. I remember when Biden voted to confirm Thomas.

Couldn’t believe that any democrat would vote for confirmation after the hearings. It’s like no one believed Anita when she was so credible. Their decision to confirm him has come to bite them in the ass many times since then. Just like their votes to confirm trump’s cabinet nominees, all of whom have turned out to be bad choices.

[MLWR]

34. Biden did NOT vote to confirm Mr. Ginni Thomas:

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1021/vote_102_1_00220.htm

[Katinfl]

40. I stand corrected.

[modrepub]

7. They Don't Even Have The Decency

To stand up for each other when Trump publicly harangues one of their colleagues.

Never watch press conferences. Do they laugh when another reporter get ridiculed?

[BattleRow]

11. Do you really expect honor among thieves?

[modrepub]

28. Nice

[RainCaster]

8. For that, the Fourth Estate is dying

And I won't miss it. CNN, CBS etc. can all go away. It's only boomers who watch that crap anyhow- just look at the adverts. It's being replaced by streaming news from Meidas, Bellingcat and others.

[mwmisses4289]

30. This young boomer doesn't watch any of those.

I watch my local ABC channel for the local weather and that's it. For the rest, generally get most news from the guardian, BBC, or CBC.

[llmart]

44. This old boomer does exactly the same as you do.

BBC or CBC for world news. Local news in the morning for the weather.

[KPN]

46. This older boomer too! As Curly of Moe, Larry, Curly would say,

“I resemble that” statement about boomers. Grrrrr.

[Katinfl]

33. What/who is Bellingcat?

[irisblue]

47. Bellingcat is an investigative journalism group founded by bloggers in 2011

By a man who was spending time arguing on line. ( there is a familiarity about that foe me)

source- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellingcat

snip- Bellingcat is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT).[6] It was founded by British citizen journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 2014Bellingcat publishes the findings of both professional and citizen journalist investigations into war zones, human rights abuses, and the criminal underworld. The site's contributors also publish guides to their techniques, as well as case studies.[8] In 2025, Bellingcat expanded operations to the United States."

snip-"Name

"The name derives from the idiom "belling the cat", which comes from a medieval fable about mice who discuss how to make a cat harmless. One mouse suggests hooking a bell around the cat's neck, making it unable to move without being heard. All the mice support the idea, but none are willing to do it."

More there

[Horse with no Name]

48. Trump is the personification

Of the “Take This Job and Shove It” anti-establishment rhetoric that was popular with the working class. He appeals to mostly the same audience.

[Torchlight]

36. Only to be replaced with the 4th Estate 2.1

once it too becomes the norm, as numerous evolutions before have illustrated.

[Farmer-Rick]

9. It was the failure of the Supremes

To uphold antitrust laws and allowed corporations to inundate us with their anti-demoracy and racist propaganda. It started with Rush Limpballs and has created Fox News and caused the deterioration of CNN, WAPO and the New York Times.

They turned our fourth estate into nothing more than the mouth piece of the filthy-rich.

[ffr]

10. The media does whatever it takes to sell advertising-commercials. tRump is controversial, i.e. a goldmine for them.

If the media was in its cash-cow days, I'm sure it would have been different and he would have been nowhere and in jail long ago. But the economic model for the media is way past cash-cow days, so they give us what will keep us viewing.

[BattleRow]

13. Supplying drug du jour..daily Fox fix,et al.

[Johnny2X2X]

12. The corproate media

The Left needed to start hammering the Corporate Media decades ago. The Right has gotten more mileage out of their "Liberal Media" tripe than anyone ever thought possible.

The way the media treated Biden should have made it painfully obvious to anyone that the media is controlled by the oligaarchs.

[OMGWTF]

22. It's even more controlled by Oligarchs now with the Ellison family owning nearly everything.

[Mr.Bee]

14. PBS

Guess you should've been watching Newshour and Democracy NOW!

[GiqueCee]

15. Coup d'tat for Dummies, chapter 1...

... first and foremost, control the media. ALL of it. Take a good, long look around you. Mission accomplished.

[Hey Joe]

16. The media glommed on to Trump for the same

reason folks would rather watch a Benny Hill skit than watch a dignified state of the union speech.
We, as Americans, have been conditioned to be constantly entertained rather than be truthfully
informed.
We are now starting to pay the price of our
choices.

[Mr.Bee]

18. Lest We Forget...

CBS chief: Trump bad for America, ‘damn good’ news for us
Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy is probably bad for America, but it has been great for CBS News’ bottom line, executive chairman Leslie Moonves said...

[Gum Logger]

17. Thom Hartmann wanted the Party to buy 1,000 radio stations

We would have more to show for it than the billion and a half dollars the Harris Campaign spent

[calimary]

37. That would have been absolutely STELLAR!

A THOUSAND stations? A THOUSAND outlets pushing OUR side and OUR worldview and OUR America-view to the world? Aw MAN…

How sweet that would have been.

[NoMoreRepugs]

19. Perhaps a testament to how fucking stupid a whole lot of the population has become????????????

[OMGWTF]

21. The media have abdicated their crucial role in our democracy.

When the autopsy is written on the USA, the media will be found as the cause of death.

[Scalded Nun]

23. My personal opinion is that the media considered (and still considers) him as one of their own

Years upon years of that bullshit apprentice show basically groomed the country for this ass-clown. They curry favor not only with $$, but with favorable coverage, regardless of what dumpster fire is occurring.

Even when he turns on them for accidentally telling a truth about him or his deeds, they crawl back like love-starved puppies looking for a pat on the head or a chance to scarf up one of his turds.

Just imagine anyone holding up a business person as a prime example of a successful businessman m(as stated above...The housing discrimination lawsuit. The use of undocumented labor. The six bankruptcies. Stiffing hundreds of contractors. Trump University).

And...just how many 'celebrities' are truly celebrated after the two dozen rape and sexual assault allegations. Just being allegations would have buried anyone else. Access Hollywood tape...locker room talk.

It will take many years (if ever) for any trust to truly be regained.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

24. Our nation is now controlled by shareholder value...

and held together by massive debt......

[CaptainTruth]

25. "Past decade"? Past 3 decades, at least.

[underpants]

26. This is a great read as well

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=21103338

[GreatGazoo]

27. the "media" is a business which sells audiences to advertisers

We aren't the customer. We are the thing being sold, more specifically our attention is being sold.

I like that the push-out of Howard Dean is in their analysis but they don't seem to acknowledge that Howard Dean was 20 years ago and surprised the legacy media and DNC because both had never really had to deal with a candidate who organized on and leveraged in the internet. Sanders was the next big one on the Dem side.

Orange guy is a master troll. He played legacy media like a fiddle. He was the car crash they could not stop talking about (still can't). And he knew how to set the media agenda every day by doing something stupid, crass or outrageous.

The media is not ours, does not work for us and has only a tangental role in prosecutions. Typically when the media wants someone out, they run stories with headlines that include "-gate" eg Russia-gate. Because "gate" = watergate = impeach this person.

It is not the media's job to replace politicians or defeat them at the ballot box. It is our job.

[New Breed Leader]

29. ok

It is not the media's job to replace politicians or defeat them at the ballot box. It is our job.

maybe not, but it IS the news media's job to hold elected officials accountable. That IS THEIR JOB. And they're not doing it.

[pacalo]

31. Exception: MSNBC, now known as MSNOW.

[maxsolomon]

35. The writer overestimates the power of the MSM

I knew every scandal in 2015 because I read the (DU-hated) NYT. I listen to the left side of the FM dial. I know what the Atlantic is.

But millions of Voters don't. They don't read. They don't listen to NPR. They don't know where PBS is on their cable remote.

There are 2 medias: MSM and Right Wing. The Right Wing Media has all of the AM dial, most of the FM dial, Sinclair stations, Fox, Newmax, OANN. It controls the places where the great unwashed get their information. Deliberately. They created it to do so.

Vilifying the MSM for not "burying" Trump is just pointless. Even their "neutral" journalistic stance is under literal attack right now.

[FakeNoose]

38. The media didn't see him as "dangerous" back in 2015 and 2016

They were laughing at him behind his back. No political pundit believed that Chump could ever win a primary then, let alone make it through to the GOP Convention. By the 2016 Convention, there was some SERIOUS MONEY backing him, and the media HAD to listen to him for real.

It doesn't mean he was a good candidate, or worthy in any way possible. But the media was caught by surprise, and then it was too late. He was the candidate and they HAD to take him seriously.

But all the writers of the day still believed Hillary was going to win the election. ALL of them......

[Nasruddin]

39. And says, "How hot?"

[4bonhoffer]

41. So very right

Edward R Murrow is spinning

[kimbutgar]

42. I'm not a " smart" persons per se but I knew back in the 80's he was a joke and was thought it was a joke when he ran

In 2015!

And look at what the f we got!

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

43. Kick

[Buzz cook]

45. The end of the Fairness Doctrine marked

the rise of the new right. That was the first rock in the avalanche.