I'm going to lump the press into the same category as big business because they walk the walk and talk the talk. Ergo they are indeed big business. In stark contrast to my personal opinion, reporters might imagine themselves as being... -- independent members of the fourth estate (a coined phrase by Edmund Burke during a parliamentary debate in 1792 on the opening up of press reporting in the House of Commons in England) -- guardians against government evils -- purveyors of the truth In reality their reporting more often finds them in the categories of both government collaborators and show business outlets. By this I mean that their performance is often directed at facilitating political deceit and pandering to sensationalism, as much as it is toward probing for and providing pertinent news.