The center-right cable format was born in 1982 with the premiere of CNN 's Crossfire. Explicitly marketed as a primetime face-off between one host "from the right" and another "from the left," with corresponding guests from each side, Crossfire set the standard for debates pitting proxy progressives against committed conservatives (see Extra!, 7-8/90). The show's original hosts: from the right, arch-conservative presidential aide Pat Buchanan, and from the left, Tom Braden—whose CIA career included supervising covert operations against Western Europe's left. Crossfire guest Timothy Leary once described the show's spectrum as "the left wing of the CIA debating the right wing of the CIA" (Rolling Stone , 12/14/89). New Republic editor and self-described "wishy-washy moderate" Michael Kinsley (American Journalism Review, 1-2/96) followed Braden into Crossfire 's left seat.
descried in FAIR website for September / October 2004 aka Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting Obviously a lot more could be said about Crossfire than this, And we really must add the " McLaughlin Group " for hard hitting debate as well.
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