The Media Master Race

Bernie Sanders wrapped up his appeal to the media by suggesting a tax on targeted ads to fund "civic-minded media" because, "more than two centuries after the constitution was signed, we cannot sit by and allow corporations, billionaires, and demagogues to destroy the Fourth Estate." The Fourth Estate is a European concept. There's no room in America for a special status for the media (or any other estates). Sanders ignores what the constitution actually says about the press. The First Amendment prohibits Congress from making laws "abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." Freedom of the press doesn't bestow a special status on the press. It springs from freedom of speech.