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.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Estate

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:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Estate

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.