記者:文 洪健昭 譯 張淑伶
People like to aggrandize themselves, press workers in particular. So much so that they call the press the fourth estate, one more added to the three estates of the realm. There used to be three estates in dear old England. Actually, they were three political groups, including the Lords Spiritual (Bishops in the House of Lords), Lords Temporal (other lords) and the Commons (the common people). In modern times, English newsmen, who were very good at self-aggrandizement, came to regard themselves as forming another political or social class and began to style the press as the fourth estate.
很多人都過分誇大自己的重要性，新聞工作者尤然，甚至到了稱新聞為「第四權」的地步。尚在封建時代末期的英國有所謂「三大權」，但是此權非三權分立之權也，英國人所指的是三大社會階級，也就是「上議院神職議員」、「上議院世俗議員」以及「眾議員」三個政治團體。在現代英國社會，善於自我吹捧的新聞記者則自認為已經形成了另一個有影響力的政治和社會團體，所以是第四階級。
Newsmen in Taiwan are even more self-aggrandizing. They have translated the fourth estate as the fourth power in Chinese, one in addition to the three powers of the realm – executive, legislative and judicial. The translation may be a gross mistake on purpose. Of course, the press may be a great power in a democracy like Taiwan, but that power means a group of people who are influential rather than a right or an authority to which they are entitled. And they get smug, because their naive but loyal readership and audience parrot the vainglorious moniker.
台灣的新聞記者臉皮更厚，他們把「第四階級」翻譯成中文的「第四權」，意思是在行政、立法、司法三權之外的第四項權力；這誤譯恐怕是故意的。的確，在像台灣這樣的民主國家，新聞很有力量，但這是說這一群人很有影響力，而不是他們擁有某種政治上的權力。那些天真無知又忠厚老實的觀眾與讀者們，不斷反覆歌頌這些驕傲自大記者們的時候，記者就開始自以為了不起了。
