The political and economic revolutions that have shaped the Western World occurred as new powers and civic institutions arose to compete with the dominant Three Estates: The "4th Estate" and most recently the "5th Estate".
The 4th Estate refers to the "Press" defined by traditional outlets of TV, radio and print journalism. The rise of Democratic governments since the 18th century were the result of the ability to disseminate information (and propaganda) to shape thoughts independent of the hierarchy of the Three Estates.
Unfortunately, over time economic and political powers have subsumed traditional news media into the advertising arm of these various conglomerates of power. Very few news outlets remain independent and reporting verified, timely and relevant information that assists the public in making every day and long-term decisions.
So in comes, the necessity of a new "5th Estate" which Wikipedia defines as the "socio-cultural reference to groupings of outlier viewpoints in contemporary society, and is most associated with bloggers, journalists, and non-mainstream media outlets". In other words, the 5th Estate came into being with the advent of the Internet and the ability of individuals to report facts and opinions to a wide audience in an inexpensive and instantaneous method.
In Miami, we have a number of citizen bloggers that serve as voluntary watchdogs on the activities of public officials. Most are never paid a dime for their work while some were genuine, award-winning journalists long before publishing their writings digitally. Personally, I believe that the highest praise a blog can receive is when they are the center of a story by a print news platform.
Which leads me to celebrate the write-up by the Biscayne Times on Stephanie Kienzle, the watchdog blogger of VotersOpinion.com. We consider her a friend and important member of watchdog even if we don't agree on every issue.
Read about Stephanie and her coverage of the North Dade political scene:
A Fish-Eye and a Shark’s Bite Written by Mark Sell for the Biscayne Time
The singular work of watching over the City of Miami these past 5 years has gone to Al Crespo, the publisher of the Crespo Gram Report. This tell-it-how-it-is, no-holds-barred telling of the missteps by public officials at the outright villainy of the elected representatives gives hope that maybe if enough people are paying attention then those people can change their government.
This week the CrespoGram.com is celebrating its 5-year birthday. Happy Birthday!
