I mean the very existence of the New Statesman/Atlantic refutes that argument fairly roundly. The real issue is that these public intellectuals were generally l

I mean the very existence of the New Statesman/Atlantic refutes that argument fairly roundly. The real issue is that these public intellectuals were generally lowering themselves to the chat show circuit in order to plug books, and allow pot-shots to be taken at their positions by the mid-brow iconoclasts that constituted American audiences and opposition figureheads at the time. Nowadays the (ersatz) equivalents that come to mind are generally plugging away on Youtube Shorts, Podcasts and monetised platforms in lieu of structured debate or moderated talk show punditry - e.g. Jordan Peterson, Slavoj Žižek, Stephen Fry and Dawkins on the 'academic' side. This has changed the consumption, the engagement, and often the context depending from what angle you consume the soundbite. The ones on the 'political' side as neocons I barely dare to mention like George Galloway, Douglas Murray etc... so as to avoid sullying Hitch's reputation by mentioning it in the same contexts as advocates of Great Replacement and other Cultural Marxism conspiracy theories.