RIP: William F. Buckley

For many years I wanted to write a letter to William F. Buckley to tell him what a major influence he has been in my life. Buckley died today, so I guess I won't be writing that letter.

Whenever I mention Buckley as an influence, my lefty and righty leaning friends raise an eyebrow. The influence has little to do with Buckley's actual political positions--most of which I grew to recognize as a species of shallow nationalism beefed up by an inflated and sometimes pretentious vocabulary.

The influence instead has to do with Buckley's television show "Firing Line," which I used to watch religiously as a teenager in the 1970s. So much was I into that program that (a.) I'm convinced my parents thought I was a strange kid and (b.) back then I actually bought written transcripts of the episodes (those were the pre-YouTube, pre-podcast days).

"Firing Line" has been the role model for just about every public affairs media program I've ever been involved with. Note in the clips below that rather than just mock or simply ignore left intellectual Noam Chomsky, Buckley actually engages him in a serious dialogue. That kind of political discourse has virtually disappeared from American media, replaced on both the right and left with one-sided gab fests that at best preach to the choir in a semi-intelligent manner, but usually are content to assault nefarious straw men and women constructed by the host.

Thank you Bill Buckley. If in my media work I can do half as much as you did to encourage people to engage in civil and thoughtful dialogue, I'll be pleased.