PARTLY FACETIOUS: Is the media still referred to as the fourth estate?

“I have a question.”

“Careful what you ask for?”

“Hey, I am not asking for any material…”

“Have you heard the one where a teacher asks a pupil why are you talking during my lesson, and the cheeky response is why are you teaching during my conversation.”

“If I had said that to my teacher…”

“You would be standing outside the Principal’s office?”

“Is that a question or an exclamation?”

“Right I forgot that is very doable in all languages – a question liberally mixed with sarcasm anyway if your question does not pertain to the ongoing judicial, political and economic situation in Pakistan I am willing to respond.”

“What about security?”

“Security is guaranteed thank you very much – you may need double the petrol to go to office or for shopping due to road closures in Islamabad especially in the Blue Area – closures since over two months but…”

“The glass half full, remember.”

“How? My petrol bill has doubled if not trebled and…”

“Each litre you consume allows the government to keep around 70 rupees in its pocket so you should be happy that the government will not have to levy any more taxes to meet its target. The IMF says that in the event of failure to meet targets, more taxes will be levied and…”

“I don’t want to get into that debate anyway, my question was: is the media still referred to as the fourth estate?”

“Granted that the Western media is presenting a one sided picture in the two ongoing conflicts – Middle East and Russia, Ukraine…”

“One sided? I would say a circle…why are you laughing?”

“Yep, they keep coming back to Zelenskyy, perhaps the most corrupt man in world history in terms of the amount stolen…”

“I suggest we refer to National Accountability Bureau…”

“Don’t be facetious, anyway to answer your question I guess the fourth estate in the world can best be defined as the deep state rather than the media because…”

“Because that was the way the cookie always tumbled, the world just didn’t know it.”

“The cookie crumbled not tumbled anyway, I agree – the gloves are really off, and all is out in the open.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025