In the mid-1970s, the alphabet networks still controlled more than 90 percent of the television market. The major newspapers were mostly left-leaning, talk radio was still a bit player, and the internet didn’t exist. Consequently, the media could and did act as a monolith and shape an anti-conservative narrative.
Today, however, the alphabet networks’ TV market share has shrunk to 19 percent. Podcasters such as Joe Rogan and social media are far more influential, and establishment narratives no longer dominate. There’s a plethora of different voices and perspectives and, as the X-Files motto goes, “The Truth Is Out There.” And it’s far easier to find than before (you still need an open mind and sincere heart, though).
As Shurk puts it, “In the recent past, television talking heads framed the acceptable parameters of ideological debate. We call it the ‘Overton Window’….” This brings us to another reason it’s harder now to be canceled for anti-wokeness — and why radicalism is burgeoning.
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This is a double-edged sword, do note. It allows for the voicing of both once-unfashionable truths and once-unfashionable lies. Ergo the Overton window’s expansion — and radicalism’s explosion.
Of course, this could all change if the censorship-loving Democrats retake the executive branch in 2028. As for our new-media landscape’s allowing for the rearing of ugly heads along with the ethereal, well, at least we now can know who the barbarians inside the gate are.