C-SPAN’s ‘Ceasefire’ Tries To Show Cooler Heads Can Prevail At A Time Of Hyper-Polarization
By Ted Johnson
C-SPAN‘s Ceasefire, the new series designed for civil conversations among partisan opposites, is landing at a moment when there is a real ceasefire, a first phase of a peace agreement reached to end hostilities in Gaza, while there are few signs of an end to the political discord at home amid the government shutdown.
The show is one of the major initiatives from Sam Feist, the longtime CNN executive who once oversaw a highly successful series, Crossfire, that, by its very title, sounds like the polar opposite.
The intent of Ceasefire, Feist said, is to show that “Republicans and Democrats can have a civil conversation. We don’t have to hate each other because we have a friend or family member who voted differently. That is at the heart of the show.”
He added, “Conflict is not the goal. It is just the opposite. Conversation is the goal, and if there is the opportunity for compromise, great.”