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Hello and

this is a special episode of the excerpt.

today is Wednesday December 13th, 2023 and this is a special episode of the excerpt.

Whether it's politics, sexual identity, or women's liberation,

Hollywood has a well-earned reputation for slanting liberal.

The conservative viewpoint meanwhile has struggled to get a strong foothold in American pop culture,

whether that's through television, movies, or music. The trend seems to shift a little

bit this year. Was this completely organic or was it by design? And if pop culture is now a

battleground, is anyone winning.

Here to dive into it with me as Joel Penny, associate professor at the School of Communication

and Media at Montclair State University.

Joel, thanks for joining me.

Thanks so much for having me today.

Okay, so you've said that there's now more of a concerted effort in the conservative world

to push into pop culture as one of their big battlegrounds.

What's taken them so long?

For a long time there was this attitude in conservative media, conservative circles that the world

of pop culture, specifically Hollywood was sort of a bridge too far, was sort of untouchable.

But that's changed recently because they really do feel that there's, there are gains to be one politically from engaging

more proactively with pop culture particularly with entertainment media.

...