Dwain Northey (Gen X)

The Fourth Estate: Buried Alive (and Jefferson’s Probably Still Rolling)

Thomas Jefferson — that powdered-wig prophet of liberty — once declared that he’d rather have “newspapers without a government” than “a government without newspapers.” He meant it, too. He truly believed that an informed public, guided by a free and fearless press, could keep tyranny at bay. Fast forward two centuries, and Jefferson is most likely doing somersaults in his grave at Monticello fast enough to power a small Virginia town.

Because somewhere between “We hold these truths to be self-evident” and “We’ll get back to you after this message from MyPillow,” America managed to bury the Fourth Estate under an avalanche of propaganda, punditry, and patriotically-approved press releases.

The latest shovelful of dirt came courtesy of Pete Hegseth, Fox News weekend warrior and aspiring information czar, who recently suggested that reporters covering the Department of Defense should sign a pledge agreeing to only publish stories he personally approves. Ah, yes — nothing says “freedom of the press” quite like mandatory loyalty oaths! Jefferson’s pen must be weeping ink in the afterlife. The Founding Fathers risked hanging for speaking freely, and now the press risks a bad segment review from a cable news host.

This, of course, didn’t spring out of nowhere. The groundwork was laid years ago when Fox News decided it was too exhausting to separate fact from fiction — so they just started calling both “fair and balanced.” Who needs investigative journalism when you can have outrage on demand? Why chase the truth when you can just scream your version of it into a camera?

Then along came Donald Trump, who took Fox’s model of narrative-driven “news” and gave it steroids. With the subtlety of a sledgehammer, he branded any unflattering report as “fake news” and any flattering one as “truth.” His followers ate it up like state-sponsored comfort food. The more the press told the truth, the more they were called liars. The more they called out corruption, the more they were accused of being corrupt. Jefferson must be spinning like a colonial fidget spinner by now.

And so, the Fourth Estate — once the proud watchdog of democracy — has been demoted to a lapdog with a social media account. The public, too, has given up on distinguishing journalism from opinion, fact from fantasy, reporting from rage-bait. One side screams “lamestream media,” the other side screams “disinformation!” and meanwhile the truth quietly packs its bags and leaves the country.

Jefferson envisioned a free press that would hold leaders accountable. Instead, we’ve got press briefings that feel like infomercials, journalists treated like traitors, and politicians tweeting conspiracy theories as if they were classified intelligence. The man who authored the Declaration of Independence would probably declare a state of emergency.

So yes, the Fourth Estate still exists — technically. It’s just being slowly replaced by the Approved Narrative Network™, where every story comes with a pre-installed moral: “We’re right, they’re wrong, and Jefferson was overrated anyway.”

Somewhere in that quiet Monticello hillside, Thomas Jefferson isn’t just rolling in his grave — he’s clawing his way out of it, parchment in hand, ready to write one last furious editorial titled “I Told You So.”