By 1965 (or thereabouts), the long march of the liberals against these laws was complete. Anti-pornography laws, if not overturned by the Supreme Court, were unenforced and virtual dead letters. Virtually any loon could advocate anything from satanic rituals to Maoism without fear of the magistrate.
About this time, liberals came to realize the old right wing press barons of old, like William Randolph Hearst and the McCormicks in Chicago, were gone and their editorial staffs populated with their fellow liberals. The new national TV networks had become America's preferred way of obtaining news; these networks, especially CBS, were liberal without fail. Also, the prestige newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post were liberal, as were at least two of the three major news magazines. The Johnson landslide of 1964 gave the Democrats both houses of Congress with filibuster proof majorities as well as the Presidency. Conservatives had turned on one another, with William Buckley excommunicating Objectivists and Birchers into the outer darkness. Young Americans for Freedom was fracturing between libertarians and traditionalists, with far fringes of the two groups spinning off into anarchism and white supremacism, respectively. The Johnson administration enforced the "Fairness Doctrine," effectively shutting down conservative broadcasters.
The period from 1965 to 1980 was the "golden age" of liberalism. To survive politically, conservatively inclined men like Nixon redefined themselves as centrists, making statements like "we are all Keynesians now." Conservative public opinion was confined mostly to low circulation magazines of varying levels of crankiness: National Review, Human Events, American Opinion, and Reason, to name the more prominent. There were also numerous newsletters with even lower circulation. There were telephone services like "Let Freedom Ring," where you could hear that day's conservative message. It was sort of like trying to find model train enthusiasts in your home town. You could find them if you asked around, but you had to put in the effort to locate them.
The one man who planted the seeds that are growing into an end to the liberal monopoly was, fittingly, Ronald Reagan, the Great Communicator. It was in his administration that the Fairness Doctrine was overturned. But it was at the tail end of his administration that a 40ish Missourian made effective use of the open airwaves to create the first mass market conservative voice in decades. The Rush Limbaugh Show generated a horde of imitators, but the EIB's "Golden Microphone" took a top spot in talk shows that no one, not Dr. Laura, not Howard Stern, not Sean Hannity, has taken away in over a decade. By 1995, the first major fissure in the liberal monopoly was broken. AM talk radio had become a fixture in the lives of many Americans, especially white males in "flyover country." It was this medium that, along with Bill and Hillary Clinton's hubris, gave both Houses of Congress to the GOP in 1994, for the first time since 1946. Not even Reagan's coattails accomplished this! The House of Representatives has stayed in the GOP's hands for four election cycles since, the first time the Republicans accomplished this feat since the days of Harding and Coolidge.
The second crack in the liberal monopoly was the Internet. As little as 20 years ago, to be an "important news source" meant having huge budgets fed by enormous advertising revenue. A practical means of cracking the news media's flagship magazines and prestige newspapers did not come along until the rise of the Internet. Then Matt Drudge, the nom de plume of a conservative whose interests combined those of a newsman and a computer geek, developed a pioneer on-line newspaper. In 2004, his Web site is viewed daily by over seven million people, more than read Time and Newsweek combined. Following in his footsteps were WorldNetDaily, Newsmax, and many others of varying quality and accuracy.
At this point, the only option the liberals have to put the genie back in the bottle is by gunpoint: reinstating the Fairness Doctrine and harrying the conservative and libertarian Web sites out of business. No one should kid themselves; given the opportunity to do so, the liberals will crush their foes by force of law. Then get used to the future: a boot stamping on a human face, forever.
It is how I remember things.
I am puzzled by parts of YAF "spinning off into anarchism and white supremacism," however.
Yes the left needs the "fairness doctrine." Well I lived through the liberals use of the "fairness doctrine" and I swore that never again would I stand by and watch. Free speech is worth spilling blood for -- our free speech, their blood. That goes for both Rats and RINOs.
Some on the left had other ways of getting Big Media in their back pocket...
President Johnson got editorial/news backup from the Chronicle in exchange for a bank merger
He knew, too, how to pull on the pursestrings. Pressed by financial backer George Brown, chairman of Brown & Root, to approve a merger of two Houston banks sought by John Jones, president of the Houston Chronicle, Johnson proposes a quid pro quo: "I want John Jones to write me a letter . . . saying, 'Mr. President . . . I just want you to know that we're making arrangements for special coverage in Washington for the Chronicle . . . and that so far as I'm personally concerned and the paper's concerned, it's going to support your administration as long as you're there. Sincerely, your friend, John Jones.'" When Johnson gets the letter he wants, he phones Jones. "From here on out," he tells him, "we're partners." "Thank you," Jones replies. "Sure are." (Five days later, the merger went through.)
Hmm? It's his real name, I think, not a nom de plume (pen name, for the folks in Rio Linda.)
-ccm