Kevin Norquay in Stuff for 13 February 2022 (https://www.stuff.co.nz/nation...) writes that
In a democracy, elected officials, the judiciary, the police, traffic wardens and the news media try to construct pillars for [the] public good. In Camp Freedom world, it’s the opposite.
This at first blush seems to be a ham-fisted concocted reorganisation of the estates general.
Clearly, the elites and the clerisy are implied in Mr Norquay's iteration but one of the estates is missing: the people, the demos, the Deplorables, the Gamon and so on.
Mr Norquay clearly, given his employer's paymaster is the Government and is in receipt of some of the $50M plus boondoggle, accordingly articulates the Government's position, for he is, in this piece, the 'Gummint's Smug meister' and advocate.
The Fourth Estate, the media, as a "pillar for the Good" is in question and ought to be questioned, as the late Brian Priestly did on the television programme The Fourth Estate.
Cameron Slater on BFD (https://thebfd.co.nz/2022/02/1...) has written an excellent piece on why the media is held in derision. It is time it looked in the mirror.
As a commentator has put it, on another forum, and the metaphors apply to our media, the media instead of 'wearing BS detectors has opted for illusion receptors'. The illusion that Mr Norquay seeks to propagate is seen through. He may dislike and deride the plebs sordida but his hate does not exempt them from speaking truth to power or from being morally right. But he does not bother to find out if that is so.
The photograph of Mr Mallard with the media on a balcony of parliament spoke volumes of its aligned partisan position.
The pillar Mr Norquay, a present-day Stylite, sees himself upon is only held up by Nanny State's apron strings for the present and ephemeral instance for spin come optic needs of the narrative's illusion. A flimsy iPad latte drenched narrative has no place amidst the reality of many in the demos.
The pillar of the fourth estate no longer has a sure foundation, it has no independence, little public utility to inform democracy's demos and is framed by a left-wing ideology that eschews critical thinking and is merely held up by a thread or two of the matriarchal apron.