Our democracy has been achieved…sort of…and our Fourth Estate long ago shook off the burden of being an advocate for the people. Our media no longer uses the voice of the common man or woman to influence government or the great power brokers in this country. Instead, the media uses its own voice to offer judgment on our country’s leaders, and it uses that voice to tell us either what we think or how we should think. And taking the mainstream media at face value, choosing to accept the information they give us and the manner in which they provide it, is the same as not thinking at all.

Most of us, as it turns out, are quite happy to do just that. We have our democracy and our measure of freedom, and as long as everything is OK in our house, that’s good enough for us. Because let’s face it, other than health care, there are no unifying themes that unite us into one powerful voice. We have become a country of special interests and power lobbyists, and it is those interest groups and lobbyists that serve as advocates for people…some people, that is…and not the Fourth Estate. Prior to the Iraq War, I would have said that national defense was a common interest, but I’m not sure how long it will take for this nation to reach a consensus on how we defend ourselves in this age of global turmoil and terror. Immigration is perhaps an issue that will unite many of us, but it’s unlikely that a united front on that subject would lead the media to speak on our behalf. They will all print editorials, of course, but those editorials will only serve to critique the performance of decision makers rather than offering solutions to problems.

Bloggers (and how I hate that term) may be a new Fifth Estate, as the internet provides a platform for a true people’s advocate (as well as The People’s Advocate). But it can be difficult to separate the rogue crackpots from the credible and insightful, making the navigation of the web a dicey trip at best.

I will say this in support of the national media…If providing a check on our leaders serves to benefit the American people, then yes, our press does indeed serve as a democratic advocate for the people. And I would think that this watchdog capacity does, in fact, often serve as a benefit. Even that, however, is a double-edged sword, as too much information disseminated to the public can make it more difficult for American leadership to do its job.

If our Fourth Estate is ever to return to a place where they can truly be a voice of the people, it will do two things. One, it will actually speak with the voice of the people, and two, it will drop partisan rhetoric. While I’m sure that media has always had a bias, I’m quite certain that mainstream media outlets have never been more biased than they are today. This paper is flaming liberal, and this channel is hard-core right wing. It does not serve the country’s best interest when its major news outlets have become political spin factories. When this is true, it proves that our media is more interested in offering opinion than it is in hearing opinion and reporting on it.

On a more mature note, our resident Curmudgeon, who noticed my usage of the term ‘Fourth Estate’ when referencing the media, asked the following…If the media is the Fourth Estate, what (or whom) are the first three? We can thank our friends in France for setting the table on this one, and give kudos for the English for so aptly describing today’s media with a phrase coined at least 250 years ago. Louis XVI once summoned a full meeting of the ‘Estate General’ to Versailles in 1789 (courtesy of the sometimes reliable Wikipedia). The first estate was clergy, the second estate was nobility, and the third estate was commoners. English novelist Henry Fielding (who often wrote under the pseudonym Captain Hercules Vinegar, a nom de plume with a damn sight more panache than Chief Justice, to be sure) coined the ‘fourth estate’ to describe the largely unnoticed yet very powerful presence…the Mob. Fielding didn’t have the Sopranos in mind; he was thinking more of the masses, or perhaps the group of reporters who tried to track down Paul Byrd on Sunday…Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle gets much of the credit for coining ‘Fourth Estate’, as he referenced Edmund Burke’s acknowledgment of the power of the press as a force in the political realm. Carlyle pointed to the Fourth Estate as a tool of advocacy for the people in the pursuit of democracy.

Thus endeth the lesson…

Be sure to check out Sean Deveney’s column on Francona from early October.

In other managerial news, Tony La Russa is returning to pilot the Cardinals. La Russa is a Hall of Fame manager, to be certain, but I’ve never cared for his managerial style. He’s always struck me as a micro-manager, from his bullpen matchups to his insatiable desire to hit the pitcher eighth. La Russa’s brilliance has generally manifested itself as arrogance, or at least that’s been the perception of the public and the media, but I suppose the only thing that will matter to Redbird fans is whether or not Tony can return St. Louis to the top of the NL Central. It says here he won’t, at least not with the ballclub he has right now, but it does seem likely that the Cardinals are not in rebuilding mode. I can’t imagine LaRussa would have agreed to sign on for that mission at 63. But it will take the healthy return of Chris Carpenter and a truckload of well-spent cash if the Cards are to avoid another sub-.500 campaign, and cash isn’t something Bill DeWitt and company have been in a hurry to spend. It all leads me to believe that the Cardinals…gasp…will be looking up at the Cubs again in 2008.