In his Dec. 5 U.S. News & World Report column, Mort Zuckerman proclaims that blogs have become the “fifth estate.” In doing so, he at once elevates blogs while separating them from traditional media, known as the “fourth estate.”

Zuckerman writes:

Given the fact that the disseminators of blogs, such as Google, have a unique protection from legal liability for what is posted, the blogs often resort to blood sport in their commentaries on politics and life, with many repeating and reporting without fact checking. (Alas, the idea that Jews plotted the 9/11 attacks began as a blog and took hold in the Muslim world as fact; in fact, it was a lie put out by Hezbollah.)

This new age of journalism is challenging the “trustee model” of journalism, where journalistic professionals served as gatekeepers, filtering the defamatory and the false. Today, a large segment of the public believes the new media are flavoring their reporting so as to tell us not so much how the world works but how the media believe it ought to work. No wonder only 44 percent of the public now say they are very, or fairly, confident of the media’s accuracy.

The blogs, while fragmenting our mass audience and carrying many more inaccuracies than mainstream media, have nonetheless democratized journalism by giving citizens daily and immediate access to different opinions and, sometimes, to purveyors of truly expert knowledge…

The opinion blogs have, in effect, become a “fifth estate,” a barometer of attitudes not just in the United States but in the world. Now, we must learn how to make the most of a flow of fact and opinion unimaginable just a decade ago.

Interesting. Two comments:

1. Blogs are a supplement to, not separate from, the fourth estate; efforts by professional journalists like Zuckerman to keep the two from merging in the public’s mind will inevitably fail.

2. I had always associated the term “fifth estate” with the poor and working classes — which bloggers definitely do not represent.

(Via Romenesko)

Technorati tags: Journalism, Zuckerman, Blogs, Media

Alice Marshall and Mike Bawden decided to run their agency Web sites through SiteScore after reading this post.

Inspired, Media Orchard rated a number of popular PR blogs from 1 to 10 using Silktide’s free tool. The results are below.

I know many great blogs aren’t on this list. My apologies; my fingers got tired. If you run your blog through SiteScore and send me the result, I’ll be happy to add it to the list in an update later. (Steve, I tried Micro Persuasion but SiteScore kept freezing up and never returned a result.)

Congratulations, Elizabeth!

CorporatePR … 8.4

Naked Conversations … 8.2

NevOn … 8.2

NewPR Wiki … 8.2

BlogWrite for CEOs … 8.2

mediations … 8.0

Richard Edelman — 6 A.M. … 7.7

POP! PR Jots … 7.6

Bilder im Kopf … 7.6

Media Orchard … 7.5

Desirable Roasted Coffee … 7.5

On Message from Wagner Communications … 7.2

For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report … 7.2

Yes, there are too many caveats to mention here — so I won’t bother. Take it with a pillar of salt.

Technorati tags: Rankings, PR, Public Relations, PR Blogs

Media Orchard usually highlights the work of other PR bloggers in “Pick of the Orchard,” but because everyone is just getting back from a long holiday weekend, we thought today we’d instead post a few random links to cheer you up. All come to you via Fark.com — but are not naughty. Happy Monday!

Technorati tags: Real Estate, Sweden, Santa, Cars, Models, Newspapers

Media Orchard should pay Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion a consulting fee for showing us this simple tool to illustrate “The Conversation Gap.”

Instead, we attempt to use the tool against him by charting our progress in catching up with Steve.

As you can surmise, we aren’t getting there anytime soon.

We bow humbled before you, PR Blog God.

Technorati tags: Micro Persuasion, PR, Public Relations, PR Blogs

Media Orchard respects the political opinions of others. I’m no wild-eyed liberal; I’ve voted for members of both parties (as well as independents) in the past.

But there’s something about the nonstop “liberal media conspiracy” theorizing of certain right-wing pundits that makes me go nuts. It’s goofy stuff that I would normally find amusing — but then I realize that millions of people actually fall for this demagoguery, and I lose it.

Two recent conspiracy blogstorms involve the mysterious “X” that appeared over Dick Cheney’s face during a Nov. 22 CNN telecast, and the Photoshop bedevilment of Condi Rice by USA Today on Oct. 19.

This evening, Matt Drudge has the following late-breaking development in the CNN conspiracy:

A CNN switchboard operator was fired over the holiday — after the operator claimed the ‘X’ placed over Vice President’s Dick Cheney’s face was “free speech!”

“We did it just to make a point. Tell them to stop lying, Bush and Cheney,” the CNN operator said to a caller. “Bring our soldiers home.”

The caller initially phoned the network to complain about the all-news channel flashing an “X’ over Cheney as he gave an address live from Washington.

“Was it not freedom of speech? Yes or No?” the CNN operator explained.

“If you don’t like it, don’t watch.”

Laurie Goldberg, Senior Vice President for Public Relations with CNN, said in a release:

“A Turner switchboard operator was fired today after we were alerted to a conversation the operator had with a caller in which the operator lost his temper and expressed his personal views — behavior that was totally inappropriate. His comments did not reflect the views of CNN. We are reaching out to the caller and expressing our deep regret to her and apologizing that she did not get the courtesy entitled to her. ”

Listen to a full tape of the call here.

Obviously, the switchboard operator was in that all-employee meeting where Jonathan Klein revealed the true meaning of the Cheney “X.” I can’t believe his loose lips!

Thank goodness they fired him before he could start telling everyone about the secret handshake.

Technorati tags: Journalism, Drudge, Cheney, CNN, Conspiracies, Blogstorms, Dick Cheney