Writers: The Fifth Estate
Graphic by Mohamed_hassan at Pixabay
Greetings,
readers. Today I'm sharing something special from a guest blogger.
The
following was first published on the Florida Writers Association's blog on July
10, 2026. It appears here by permission from the author, Paul Iasevoli.
Paul holds a master's degree in Latin American Literature. Born in New York, he came of age in the Midwest, studied French in Quebec, Spanish in Spain, and worked for 30 years as a teacher and school administrator on Long Island, NY. Now living on the Gulf Coast of Florida, he works as a freelance editor and serves on Florida Writers Association's Board of Directors. Visit: https://www.pauliasevoliwords.com
Writers: The Fifth Estate
The Press
The term
fourth estate was coined centuries ago in reference to the press and is
enshrined in the First Amendment of our Constitution along with the freedom of
speech and the right of the people to assemble. Now, in this third decade of
the twenty-first century, all three of those freedoms are under
attack—especially the press. Consider the recent 60 Minutes debacle
along with CNN and The New York Times being called “fake
news,” and the intent is clear: cut off one of society’s legs and its other
civil structures will fall.
The Printing Press
In the
United States the first, second, and third estates refer respectively to the
executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, but in medieval
Europe the estates referred to, in hierarchical order, the clergy, the
aristocracy, and the common classes.
The idea
of a fourth estate, i.e., the press, didn’t come about until the invention of
the printing press in the fifteenth century. As that technological advance
spread throughout Europe and the rest of the world, it had the power to change
society with the written word.
In 1517,
the press afforded Martin Luther the luxury of printing enough copies of
his Ninety-five Theses to tack them on the doors of Roman
Catholic churches throughout Wittenberg, Germany. Luther’s one-page document brought
a large part of the Catholic clergy to its knees for reasons other than prayer.
Seeing the church rocked by the written word frightened the aristocracy and,
then, just as now, compelled kings and those in power to control what was
printed and read by the common classes.
Two
hundred sixty years later, Thomas Pane’s forty-seven-page pamphlet Common
Sense put a thorn in the British monarchy’s side. Common
Sense was the subversive chapbook of its day and one of the driving
forces behind the American Revolution.
The People’s Press
Fast
forward another 250 years and new technologies are creating thorny issues for
politicos on both sides. The internet has become a megaphone for all the
people. Sites like Substack have become a forum for writers. Moreover,
self-publishing technologies have given rise to independent voices. Not unlike
Pane’s self-published pamphlet, these voices may serve as a fifth check on the
government’s attempts to silence free expression. Meanwhile, with the wealth of
knowledge stored in cyberspace, books like 1984, Fahrenheit
451, The Bluest Eyes, and other works the government deems
objectionable may be pulled from library shelves, but they will always be
available somewhere online.
The Final Press
We, then,
my fellow writers, are the new Fifth Estate. It is with our independent
thoughts and words online and in print that we may keep the current tide of
censorship at bay. In the previous sentence I use the word tide with
its sense of ebb and flow. Throughout history, governments have attempted to
silence critics. The recent affronts against late night comedians are akin to
condemnations put upon Lenny Bruce and George Carlin when censors labeled them
as “indecent.” Yet both of them fought back with their spoken words.
Written
words—more subtle and, sometimes, less public—also have had the ability to
raise red flags above hidden dangers in society. Consider the aforementioned
works of Ray Bradbury or George Orwell—Bradbury’s story addressed book banning
and Orwell’s 1945 novel Animal Farm used livestock to make a
laughingstock of the hierarchy in authoritarian states. Ten years later,
William Golding’s novel, Lord of the Flies, exposed the corruption
of the British class system in the guise of a band of adolescent boys stranded
on an island. Fortunately, or perhaps not, they’re rescued just before they go
completely feral.
So, it is
our Fifth Estate’s duty—no matter what schemes are devised to suppress our
freedoms—to tell the truth with our words. More often than not, it’s easier to
express the quiet part out loud in prose or poetry: fictionally through aliens,
haints, or beasts lurking in the darkness; satirically with skits a la SNL;
poetically as Richard Blanco or Amanda Gorman have done at two inaugurations.
To twist
an expression borrowed from Shakespeare—Write on!
Writers: The Fifth Estate | Florida Writers Association
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Thank you for reading!
Charlene L. Edge
Member of The Florida Writers Association since 2012
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