Author: hshot@mit.edu

Kirkus Reviews

A starred review for Open To Debate

“A generous description and analysis of Firing Line, the weekly TV show hosted for three decades by conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr.

Early on, Hendershot (Film and Media/MIT; What’s Fair on the Air?: Cold War Right-Wing Broadcasting and the Public Interest, 2011, etc.) identifies herself as a liberal, but her work is suffused with a fair and balanced approach to the show that eventually found its home on PBS, where it ran for most of its 33 years (1966-1999). The author’s research is formidable: interviews, major reliance on National Review (the magazine Buckley founded in 1955), and a comprehensive familiarity with the guests and topics on the show, a familiarity clearly acquired by many hours at the video monitor and many hours of reading transcripts.”

Read the review- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/heather-hendershot/open-to-debate/

Publishers Weekly

“In her view, Buckley was the “major conservative public intellectual” of post-WWII America, and Firing Line is “a model for what smart political TV once was,” contrasting with today’s on-air incivility…Using interviews and transcripts, Hendershot does more than tell the history of a uniquely influential show and personality; her thorough, compelling, and very readable book provides a three-decade journey through the center of the nation’s intellectual life.”

Read the review- http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-243045-8

Open To Debate on the Conservative Book Club

Author Interview with Conservative Book Club About Bill Buckley Book

“In a fresh take on William F. Buckley, Jr., the preeminent leader of the early conservative movement, author Heather Hendershot takes us behind the scenes of Buckley’s TV show called “Firing Line” in her new book: “Open to Debate: How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on the Firing Line. The show was on air for 33 years and helped make conservatism respectable in mainstream culture. If you love Bill Buckley, you’ll love this”

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MIT News coverage of Open To Debate

Changing the face of conservatism in the U.S.

New book by professor Heather Hendershot explores impact of William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line.”

Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office

“We are in a moment when the loudest voices seem to be the most extreme,” Hendershot says.

And as strongly as Buckley held to his conservative views, Hendershot thinks, he promoted on “Firing Line” a very different ethos of public debate than the one we have today.

“You could come to it as a conservative and become a better, smarter conservative, or come to it as a liberal and become a better, smarter liberal,” Hendershot says. “He was willing to accept that people might listen to a liberal and think, ‘That’s a good idea.’ But he thought he would win. That is a kind of model that we can take a lot from.”

Read the article here: http://news.mit.edu/2016/book-changing-face-conservatism-us-firing-line-1004

The Boston Globe on Open To Debate

Junot Díaz’s diversity in best short story picks and the lessons of ‘Firing Line’

“The level of discourse in this year’s presidential election season has some observers longing for more civil times. MIT film and media professor Heather Hendershot examines such an era in “Open to Debate: How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on the Firing Line” (Broadside). On his pioneering TV program “Firing Line,” the pioneering TV program which aired from 1966 to 1999, Buckley debated his opponents with respect and a sharp tongue.”

Read the article- https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/books/2016/09/29/junot-diaz-diversity-best-short-story-picks-and-lessons-firing-line/xkEdC0XRNt16NosOKpYd6L/story.html

The Wall Street Journal

Reading Bill Buckley in the Age of Trump

Clark S. Judge reviews ‘Open to Debate’ by Heather Hendershot and ‘A Torch Kept Lit’ edited by James Rosen.

“A second book featuring Bill Buckley takes up still another aspect of his public persona. The author, Heather Hendershot, is a professor of film and media at MIT. “Open to Debate: How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on The Firing Line” is a survey and critique of the television program that did so much, over three decades, to make Buckley a celebrity presence in national life.”

Read the article- http://www.wsj.com/articles/reading-bill-buckley-in-the-age-of-trump-1475267507

Open to Debate

How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America on the Firing Line

https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062430458/open-to-debate

low rez cover“Hendershot lauds Buckley for the intelligence, honesty, wit, civility, and élan with which he developed meaningful dialogues … A cogent reminder of what political broadcasting could be.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“Clever…a good introduction not only to Buckley and smart conservative thought but (strange concept) a sadly disappeared politics of civility.”
—Los Angeles Times

“William F. Buckley and his long-running, unique show Firing Line provides a window (if sometimes a curved mirror) through which to see a turbulent and transformative time in American politics. If you want to step into a time machine for a look back, this book is your ticket.”
—Ira Glasser, American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director 1978-2001 

“Hendershot does more than tell the history of a uniquely influential show and personality; her thorough, compelling, and very readable book provides a three-decade journey through the center of the nation’s intellectual life.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A thoroughly researched work replete with intelligence, admiration, balanced criticism, and even a bit of nostalgia.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A unique and compelling portrait of William F. Buckley as the champion of conservative ideas in an age of liberal dominance, taking on the smartest adversaries he could find while singlehandedly reinventing the role of public intellectual in the network television era.

When Firing Line premiered on American television in 1966, just two years after Barry Goldwater’s devastating defeat, liberalism was ascendant. Though the left seemed to have decisively won the hearts and minds of the electorate, the show’s creator and host, William F. Buckley—relishing his role as a public contrarian—made the case for conservative ideas, believing that his side Continue reading “Open to Debate”

MIT School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences- Election Insights 2016

On Political Rhetoric and Outsider Candidates

“As a historian of American political media, it is always my instinct to ask how we can use the past to understand the present, and from this perspective it is useful to back up and consider how the rhetorical strategies of outsider candidates in earlier elections may help to put the Trump-Clinton election into context.”

— Heather Hendershot, Professor of Comparative Media Studies

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What’s Fair on the Air?

COLD WAR RIGHT-WING BROADCASTING AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST

http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/W/bo11462413.html

whatsfair

The rise of right-wing broadcasting during the Cold War has been mostly forgotten today. But in the 1950s and ’60s you could turn on your radio any time of the day and listen to diatribes against communism, civil rights, the United Nations, fluoridation, federal income tax, Social Security, or JFK, as well as hosannas praising Barry Goldwater and Jesus Christ. Half a century before the rise of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, these broadcasters bucked the FCC’s public interest mandate and created an alternate universe of right-wing political coverage, anticommunist sermons, and pro-business bluster. Continue reading “What’s Fair on the Air?”