How does the left has a vice grip on discourse in media? The most watched cable news network is conservative. The largest operator of local tv is conservative.
The problem is, people with seemingly unpopular views do not know which of their acquaintances share their views. So it’s hard to estimate the popularity of a given view, and the default option becomes silence. Inevitably, the popular view quickly seeps into the void, meeting no resistance as it becomes the de-facto standard of thought.
The end result is a polarized society driven by a stagnant discourse of self-indulgent moral platitudes.
Intellectual conservativism was destroyed from the right. Incoherent anger politics turned out to be far more effective at getting the voters.
Edit: meanwhile in Oregon the conservatives have fled to break a quorum rule and are issuing press releases with armed anti-government groups. As the Maoists discovered, who needs intellectuals when you have guns and slogans?
Intellectual conservatism - at least under certain definition - is tricky to defend. When there is a choice between "progress" - moving forward - and "stability" - avoiding changes - staying implies perceived perfection, which doesn't seem particularly intellectual. Progress doesn't just mean "change by all means", but conservation does mean "reject change", otherwise there would be no difference to talk about.
You sort of answered your own question. People looking for a left-leaning narrative have (C)(MS)NBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. People looking for a right-leaning narrative have Fox(News)(Business).
Fox has consolidated the right-leaning audience. Anyone who complains about them should always follow the complaint asking why there aren't more conservative news networks to keep them honest.
Most of these networks (CNN, CBS) aren’t actually left leaning, except in comparison to Fox. Consider how much time they gave to stories like Hillary Clinton’s email server during 2016. They didn’t focus soley on Benghazi for a year, but that shouldn’t make a network “left-leaning”.
left and right have always been relative terms. saying CNN isn't "actually" left leaning is like saying California isn't really west because Hawaii exists.
That you can think these networks have left-leaning narratives just goes to show how much right-wing politics have become the norm.
As another commenter pointed out, the only thing that can be tought of as "left-wing" with them is that they are to the left of Fox News.
To go back to basics, left means distributing profits more equally, having built-in methods of solidarity, and giving power to the people (all of them).
> The most watched cable news network is conservative. The largest operator of local tv is conservative.
In USA. But nowadays is more complicated than this. There is also CCTV and Al Jazeera for example that have a mix of USA and non-USA watchers largely exceding the number of USA population.
That is hilarious. Good thing they have strong unions and "don't be evil." Being slightly less conservative to the rabid dogs of today's right wing juggernaut is not a socialist utopia.
In your world george bush jr. is a socialist lefty.
Without wading into the weeds, one casualty of these American political times is the loss of intellectual conservatism as a tenable public position.
We are all made greater having our convinctions tested with honest debate, and lesser for the lack of it.