of top-level finance and industry that is effectively able to govern … without reference to the consent of the governed as expressed through the formal political process …”. ’Dark state’ — “networks of officials, private firms, media outlets, think tanks, foundations, NGOs, interest groups, and other forces that attend to the needs of capital, not of everyday life” while “concealed from public gaze (or ‘hidden in plain sight’)", citing Jason Lindsay (2013). ’The Fourth Branch’ of US government — consisting of “an ever more unchecked and unaccountable centre …, working behind a veil of secrecy”, citing Tom Engelhardt (2014). Per Engelhardt: “Classically, … the three branches of government … were to check and balance one another so that power would never become centralized …. The founding fathers [never envisioned] that a fourth branch of government, the national security state, would arise, dedicated to the centralization of power in an atmosphere of total secrecy. In the post-9/11 years, it has significantly absorbed the other three branches.” In popular culture In The Simpsons episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts" (originally aired October 9, 1994), Springfield's leading conservative talk radio host, Birch Barlow (a parody of leading American conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh) welcomes listeners to his show by introducing himself as the "fourth branch of government" and the "51st state." In 2007, the short-lived ABC drama-thriller Traveler, the fourth branch existed as a secret society created by the Founding Fathers and composed of the oldest families in the United States, whose purpose is to implement checks and balances on the U.S. government to guide the true course of America. Rapper and political activist Immortal Technique has a track entitled the "4th branch," in which he applies the role of said branch to the media in a pejorative manner. He implies in this track (or pretty much explicitly states) that corporately owned mass-media outlets of the United States act more like another part of the government instead of as independent entities, and he gives some of his reasons for this belief on the track. See also Deep state Fourth estate National security state Military industrial complex Recuperation (politics) Shadow government (conspiracy) Government of the Republic of China, which has five official branches Notes References Political mass media in the United States Separation of powers