{"id":13830,"date":"2016-09-27T13:39:37","date_gmt":"2016-09-27T21:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=blog&p=13830"},"modified":"2023-09-19T13:16:58","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T20:16:58","slug":"evolution-tv-political-pundits-legacy-buckley-vidal","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/blog\/evolution-tv-political-pundits-legacy-buckley-vidal\/","title":{"rendered":"Evolution of TV Political Pundits: The Legacy of Buckley and Vidal"},"content":{"rendered":"

As depicted in\u00a0Best of Enemies<\/em><\/a>, bitter intellectual rivals Willam F. Buckley and Gore Vidal eviscerating each other\u00a0with wit on network TV\u00a0in 1968 made for riveting, and sometimes jaw-dropping, television. It also laid the groundwork for the ignominious future of the TV political pundits, a species of media figure Best of Enemies<\/em> filmmaker Morgan Neville accuses of debasing public discourse,\u00a0“the dumbing down of the nation … a race to the bottom.”<\/p>\n

It’s hard to imagine Buckley or Vidal would be flattered to be linked to anti-intellectual political television now.\u00a0It’s not all lowbrow, of course; for every cable news shoutfest, there’s a more polite political conversation on PBS, or a Jon Stewart or W. Kamau Bell providing pointed commentary.<\/p>\n

To see what we’ve become it’s good to have a look at how things started, before even Buckley and Vidal’s verbal sparring matches at the 1968 political conventions.\u00a0Who have been American television history’s most important political pundits? Which shows were a part of the evolving (and some would argue, devolving) TV political landscape? This brief survey is not meant to be all-encompassing, but rather provide a glimpse of some pivotal moments and key players.<\/p>\n

Before Buckley and Vidal: Early Landmarks & Pioneers<\/b><\/p>\n

Edward R. Murrow<\/b> was a pioneer of television news broadcasting who first rose to prominence as the lead of CBS News London-based coverage of World War II. Murrow even flew on combat planes for especially vivid broadcasts, where he gathered together a top-flight team of reporters, that included Howard K. Smith (later the moderator of the Buckley\/Vidal debates) and Eric Sevareid. It was Murrow’s post-war television career that is most permanently etched in American culture. His <\/span>See It Now<\/span><\/i> program tackled controversial topics, most famously going after the Red Scare\/McCarthyism at a time when no other mainstream news source dared cross the House Un-American Activities Committee. Ultimately, Murrow’s hard-hitting reporting clashed with the network head, in addition to failing ratings and the increasing popularity of “fluffier” entertainment like game shows, and he fell out of favor. But his legacy and historical import remain unchallenged for being one of the\u00a0very first to express direct, opinionated political commentary on network television. Here’s Murrow famously taking down Senator Joe McCarthy on See It Now<\/em> (“we are not descended from fearful men”) in 1954:<\/span><\/p>\n