Documentary and discussion target partisan, talking-head cable news programming

In an era of cable news where productive discussion is often abandoned for impromptu shouting matches, the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies is hosting a screening of a documentary that looks at the history of debate on television, and how it can get better.

A discussion will follow the free screening of "Best of Enemies," a documentary that focuses on the behind-the-scenes angle of the explosive televised 1968 debate between liberal Gore Vidal and conservative William F. Buckley. The film details what happened when the two clashed over God, politics, sex and what was best for America, and what impact from the famous debates can still be felt in media today.

Screening of "Best of Enemies"

Thursday, September 17, at 7 p.m.

Celebration! Cinema, Grand Rapids Woodland (near the Woodland Mall)

3195 28th Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512

Joe Hogan, program director for the Hauenstein Center's Common Ground Initiative, said the discussion following the screening will focus on whether Buckley and Vidal's on-air battle marked the intellectual high-water mark for televised debate, or lead to its downfall, along with the issue of why scathing attacks and party-line stance commentary generate ratings for pundits that original thoughts never could.

Commentators and Grand Valley experts Toni Perrine, Benjamin Lockerd and Paul Murphy will join Hauenstein Center staff to ask questions about why news pundits today can't or won't speak with much originality or intelligence about the problems Americans face. They will also address why the shouting matches on MSNBC and Fox News pass for acceptable journalism in the information age, and if the pointless battles and vitriol in the media is hurting the ability of politicians and policymakers to reach common ground on critical issues of the day.