What is the Overton Window? it is a definition of a range of policies and ideas politically acceptable to the mainstream population at any given time. Unfortunately, in our polarized political climate, said window seemingly gets smaller and smaller every year. A glaring example of this is the abrupt termination by NBC News of Ronna McDaniel, former chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. NBC News hired McDaniel on March 22, 2024 as a contributor, which given her position in the Republican Party was meant to be a contrasting conservative viewpoint on the otherwise left-leaning news network. McDaniel, of course, is a strong ally of President Trump, and her hiring led to outrage among other hosts for this. NBC immediately buckled under this pressure and parted ways with McDaniel days later.
Now, of course NBC is a private business and as such can manage its employees as it sees fit. But the firing McDaniel is yet another reminder of the hypocrisy of the left when it comes to free speech. The Democratic Party and its allies in the legacy media constantly boast that the stands for free speech and tolerance of differing opinions, but when they are actually faced with having to interact with someone with someone of differing viewpoints the aforementioned Overton Window is promptly closed, in this case solely because Ronna McDaniel is a conservative who supports President Trump. NBC has no problem, however, with having a rotation of Democratic Party operatives and blatantly partisan hosts. For example, Jenn Psaki, the former Press Secretary for President Biden, hosts a show that is virtually identical to that role.
To put it simply, the left-wing hypocrisy regarding freedom of speech goes hand-in-glove with the spinelessness of the legacy media