A movement is developing online on Facebook to promote a public affairs debate for charity, to be provided to families of war veterans, between leading conservative talk show hosts and leading progressive talk show hosts, and it should be definitely encouraged!
The debate would pit Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and Glenn Beck from Fox News Channel versus Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and Jon Stewart of Comedy Channel, with Stephen Colbert of Comedy Channel as the moderator.
This would be a great opportunity for a serious debate on political issues, and would put all six talk shows hosts’ “feet to the fire” to prove that their viewpoints are legitimate on the many political controversies dividing this nation!
The question that arises is whether all of these talk show hosts would be amenable to such a challenging debate. This could be the “debate of the century” in the sense that since none are running for public office, it could be a very productive discussion that would be educational to the millions of Americans that would, hopefully, watch and listen to the debate!
I call on all of these talk show hosts to accept the challenge, and to show the public the abilities and talents they possess, and let the people decide for themselves who is to be believed and trusted!
I think this is a good idea for promoting political discourse and benefiting charity. Although for a more involved debate I would prefer other personalities. Unfortunately it seems our media is littered with a lot of these self-righteous talking head types (or comedians). It would be interesting to watch, but I wonder how productive it would be. The style of the hosts brings to mind that old political mudwrestling show called “Crossire” on CNN, which famously imploded after Jon Stewart went on as a guest.