Sourcing from Wikipedia on the above, Thomas Carlyle attributed the remark to Edmund Burke who used it in a Parliamentary debate in 1787 at the opening of press reporting on the House of Commons though there is much more information as to its origin if you care to look it up. Oscar Wilde, and quoting from the same source remarked that "In the old days men had the rack now they have the Press!" and of the other three estates The Lords Spiritual says nothing, The Lords Temporal have nothing to say and The Commons has nothing to say and says it! But then Oscar would wouldn't he. Much more fun if you look it up on Wikipedia and much more accurate too. In a week when a major newspaper has "failed" the estate described by Burke as the most important of them all seems to have gone to seed! Anyway a chance to use a poem from a few years ago.
The Fourth Estate
Embedded in such legalese
As please M' Lords
A little wheeze
Could show good cause
To such respect
When body politic
Dissect!
That every class
Of hound or hack
Was safely muzzled
Round the back.
Or carcass nailed
In some debate
That prowled about
The Fourth Estate.
Frank Murphy.
Photo: Trim Castle/Scurlogstown Haymaking Festival.
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