The fifth estate[1] has apparently existed for a while now, despite my hatred of all "nth estate" nomenclature
Seriously, in the US, if you regard the clergy, nobleman and peasants (the traditional first 3 estates) as the most important power structures, then you need to recalibrate your world view.
That's the origin of the phrase, yes, but in the US the phrase "Fourth Estate" has been bastardized to mean "Fourth Branch of Government".
I'm so gullible, for a minute there I was like "there's a fifth estate now"? I thought I was going to have to google what this new estate was all about.
The Fifth Estate are bloggers, and sites like Gawker:
Well then, shows how much I know. I'd never heard of them being called that. It seems odd that another type of news agency would be a different estate.