Let's begin by defining this would-be enemy:
In Carlyle's On Heroes and Hero Worship (1841), he writes, "... does not... the parliamentary debate go on... in a far more comprehensive way, out of Parliament altogether? Edmund Burke said that there were three Estates in Parliament, but in the Reporters Gallery yonder, there sat a fourth Estate more important far than they all." [1]
Having cleared that up, there's this open secret here in America about, The Great Media Breakdown. In this article, Gitlin gives us a fine "clinical" observation of its breakdown.