Firing Line with Margaret Hoover

"[William F. Buckley Jr.] thought if you could turn everything into a debate and an argument, the better side, his side, would win," says biographer Sam Tanenhaus.

"The argument always got better when Bill Buckley was involved in it."

FULL EPISODE: bit.ly/4azlZbX

"He was a ubiquitous presence for about 50 years in American life," says Sam Tanenhaus, author of "Buckley: The Life and the Revolution that Changed America."

"Bill Buckley was probably the most famous intellectual in America for that entire span."

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Biographer Sam Tanenhaus discusses William F. Buckley Jr.'s life and his enduring legacy 100 years after his birth.

"He was a ubiquitous presence for about 50 years in American life."

TONIGHT 8:30 pm ET

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"He is the architect of the modern conservative movement," says biographer Sam Tanenhaus of William F. Buckley Jr.

"There was nobody like him before. There hasn't been anyone since."

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" @CornelWest.bsky.social has been under pressure from the progressive side sometimes to do things or say things that he actually doesn't agree with and he refuses to yield," says Robert George.

"I try to do that on my end and I look to him as a model."

On Spotify: tinyurl.com/48thv562

Progressive @CornelWest.bsky.social and conservative Robert George explain why deeply held beliefs are hard to change.

"We perceive challenges...as assaults on us personally, because now our very identities are caught up in what we believe," George says.

On Apple: tinyurl.com/45y2uxjk

Conservative Robert George says progressive @cornelwest.bsky.social "unsettled" his views on race and showed him "we have to deal with the facts of history."

"I come from a tradition of lifting every voice," West says. "I want him to find his voice and he'll land where he lands."

Progressive @CornelWest,bsky.social points to #DonaldTrump as an example of our "gangsterized" moment in history.

"What I mean is the eclipse of integrity, honesty, decency," he says.

But he adds, "Gangsterism is not just a right-wing thing."

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Progressive @cornelwest.bsky.social and conservative Robert George describe learning through their differences and the message of their friendship.

"We just always want to send a sign to the nation that deep down in your heart, you know, love is not reducible to politics," says West.

"My inclination...was to suppose that the fundamental problem is that people are race conscious," Robert George says of his evolving views on race.

"What @CornelWest.bsky.social has driven home with me is...we have to deal with the facts of history."

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Progressive @CornelWest.bsky.social and conservative Robert George differ on capitalism, but they agree on the danger of greed.

"There's got to be fair regulation of markets," West says, while George warns unregulated markets can do "much more harm than good."

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"It's deeper than civility and it's even deeper than respect," progressive @CornelWest.bsky.social says of his bond with conservative Robert George.

"I not only love Brother Cornel, I admire him..." George says. "He sets an example for me."

FULL EPISODE: tinyurl.com/2rpybd3b

This holiday week, celebrate civility with an ideological odd couple who say their political differences are a blessing.

Progressive @cornelwest.bsky.social and conservative Robert George share their recipe for friendship.

TONIGHT 8:30 pm ET

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Progressive @cornelwest.bsky.social says a rising hostility to free speech on the left is "partly generational."

Conservative Robert George credits West with standing up to that sentiment, adding that freedom of speech is "essential to truth-seeking and to running a republican democracy."

In 2020, @cornelwest.bsky.social told Margaret Hoover health care is "absolutely" a human right.

But Robert George argued health care should not be provided by the government "unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Reasonable people of goodwill can disagree," George added.

In 2020, @cornelwest.bsky.social and Robert George offered advice for maintaining civility on Thanksgiving.

"I'm not going to learn anything from somebody I'm shouting at," George said.

"We want to be improvisational," West said, adding, "being improvisational doesn’t mean you give in."

Conservative Robert George recently resigned from the Heritage Foundation board over its defense of Tucker Carlson's interview with Nick Fuentes.

See Margaret Hoover’s interview from 2020 with George and progressive @cornelwest.bsky.social.

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"I think you're going to see an explosion over the next few years of interesting, sophisticated storytellers trying things that we haven't seen before."

@nebula.tv founder and CEO @dwisk.us assesses the future of the creator economy.

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The lack of journalistic standards in the creator economy is "a real concern," says @nebula.tv CEO @dwisk.us.

"Journalism doesn't mean reporting things they heard, which is a lot of how social media works. Journalism is about vetting and finding secondary sources to confirm what you heard."

Today marks 100 years since William F. Buckley Jr.'s birth.

As we continue to uphold the #FiringLine tradition with civil discussions of major issues, many of Buckley's guests from the original program have returned to speak with Margaret Hoover.

Watch the interviews: tinyurl.com/3cn3t8et

How is the creator economy on its way to being worth half a trillion dollars?

“Steve Jobs,” says @nebula.tv founder and CEO @dwisk.us.

Ever since the invention of the iPhone, there’s been a “real shift in how we consume things, and it's a shift in the way we perceive the world around us.”

"If you're trusting the social media platform to decide what your kids should watch, you may not be taking an active enough role in your child's development," says @dwisk.us.

"And to simply ask Mark Zuckerberg to decide what's best for your kids is insane to me."

On Apple: bit.ly/3LX1Imn

"There's a reason Hollywood doesn't bring in no-name writers, no-name directors, and no-name actors to lead a $30 million movie. You need stars to put butts in seats."

@dwisk.us explains why he is skeptical AI can replace human filmmakers.

On Apple: bit.ly/3LX1Imn

"What we offer is equity," says @nebula.tv CEO @dwisk.us, explaining how his platform is different from sites like YouTube.

"The creators on our platform, they all own a piece of the platform."

Follow on Spotify: bit.ly/3XHtuG2

"On one side of the canyon, you've got film, television, music, video games, theater, radio, everything," says @nebula.tv founder and CEO @dwisk.us.

"And then on the other side of the canyon is the creator economy."

FULL EPISODE: bit.ly/4ptdPpP

"I think that the window of time where being famous for being famous, I hope, is sort of coming to a close."

@nebula.tv founder and CEO @dwisk.us discusses the backlash against influencer culture.

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"If we are creating a platform, we are not responsible for everything everyone says on the platform," says @nebula.tv founder and CEO @dwisk.us.

"We are responsible for who we let on the platform."

“It used to be that if you want to publish a newspaper, you had to have a whole publishing company,” says @nebula.tv CEO @dwisk.us.

“Now, a college student can wake up in the morning with an idea and make a video, publish it on YouTube.”

Should the gatekeepers of media be nervous?

“Extremely.”

“There's a presumption that we are dilettantes, that we're pretending to be media players, that we are children," says @nebula.tv founder and CEO @dwisk.us of the creator economy.

"I think that that is changing."

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"Women are central to any story of war," says Sarah Botstein, who directed and produced "The American Revolution" with Ken Burns.

"And that is absolutely true in the American Revolution...Women are the heart of the history of this time."