4 ms·

I think he is actually referring to the Press (ie, the fourth state). I can't make sense of it any other way. It might just be an error. If he means the Fourth

I think he is actually referring to the Press (ie, the fourth state). I can't make sense of it any other way. It might just be an error. If he means the Fourth State, then "unsurprising" would refer to a gate-keeper's desire to maintain their position. Ie, the Press has a lot of power because of their position in deciding what people get to hear. It is unsurprising that they would seek to preserve that power.

cowpig 7y ago
It's possible he meant the Fourth Estate, but he seems to be blurring the lines between Fourth and Second and trying to make this point about how the Second only exists because of the Fourth, so I'm not sure. But even if it is just an error, what are the words "monopoly control" doing in there? And is it even useful to think of "The Media" as a entity with an agenda? When he's talking about the editorial board at the New York Times it's plausible, but then suddenly he's talking about this nebulous "estate" concept and attributing motivations to it like it's acting as an individual. And then once he's done that, he's taking a criticism of Facebook and attributing the criticism to his nebulous concept and saying "of course they would say that," in order to make me feel like the fact that the criticism is true is less relevant?