The anti-Maga talkshow: after 70 years, PBS’s The Open Mind still has it

For seven decades, PBS’s The Open Mind has quietly championed insightful political discourse, advocating for depth, civility, and conversations that genuinely respect the audience’s intelligence. A testament to its enduring relevance emerged in December 1973, when the public television current affairs program dedicated a special episode to what acclaimed historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. termed the ‘imperial presidency.’ This televised roundtable discussion was remarkably timely. The global economy was reeling from the escalating oil prices fueled by the OPEC crisis, the Watergate scandal was intensifying in Washington, and President Richard Nixon’s actions in the Oval Office increasingly mirrored those of a desperate monarch, attempting, as Schlesinger observed, to evade accountability for his deeds.