It’s been 42 years since CNN brought political dueling to TV with the fiery Crossfire, changing televised panel debates from cerebral discussions to shouting matches.
Now in a bid to restore “honest and civil” political talk in Washington, the non-partisan C-SPAN is debuting CeaseFire, a new weekly show aimed at highlighting areas of common ground in the divided capital.
The show, set to begin in the fall, is the first programming change instituted by CEO Sam Feist, who took charge of the public affairs cable outfit last year after years as CNN’s Washington bureau chief.
“This new weekly series takes a different approach to the typical political panel. It will feature leaders and lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle who would typically be pitted against one another — instead paired for honest and civil discussions about how to tackle the nation’s most pressing problems,” said C-SPAN.
The new show will be hosted by Politico White House Bureau Chief Dasha Burns, who has been a C-SPAN regular and also often appears on other cable networks, such as Bret Baier’s Special Report on Fox News. Baier offers a weekly segment he calls “Common Ground,” that typically features a Democrat and a Republican talking about coming together to solve pressing issues.
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“As polarized as this country may seem, CeaseFire will show that we can still work together as a nation to find common ground. I am looking forward to hosting this unique program and pushing people out of their comfort zones to move beyond partisan acrimony,” said Burns, formerly with NBC.
Feist said Burns is a perfect fit to host the new show. “Dasha’s non-partisan approach to her well-sourced reporting is what makes her an ideal fit for C-SPAN,” he said.