John Hood. Becki Gray. Rick Henderson. They’re regular panelists on NC SPIN, which has a new home beginning Friday night, Jan. 19, as Carolina Journal reports via this Q&A between Mitch Kokai and NC SPIN creator and host Tom Campbell.
MK: … You referenced this: the change in the collegiality and the change in the way that both sides of a political argument will operate and respond to each other. That’s one thing that really hasn’t changed on “NC SPIN.” You get people of very different views, but they’ll sit down and talk to each other, and not just shout at each other.
TC: From the outset, one of the guidelines — and, by the way, your listeners might be interested in knowing how this all got started. I was at an event one night, and ran into [John Locke Foundation Chairman] John Hood, and told him I’d been a big fan of John McLaughlin and “The McLaughlin Group” on PBS. I was a licensee for Fox 50, the television station here in Raleigh/Durham, and I was intrigued by McLaughlin’s show. McLaughlin himself was a bit brusque, and I didn’t like him as a moderator all that much. But I liked the idea of having a show where you could hear different sides of issues.
And I mentioned that to John, and he said, “Funny you should mention that because,” he said, “I used to work as a researcher for Fred Barnes on that show. I know how the show’s built. I know how it’s formatted. If you’re really serious about wanting to start a show like that in North Carolina, I can tell you how to do it. And, by the way, I’d like to be on it.” And I said, “Well, OK. You’ll represent one end of the spectrum. We’ve got to get someone that will represent the other end.” And both of us, just almost simultaneously, said Chris Fitzsimon. We met at TK Tripps restaurant, sat down over a napkin over lunch one day, and that’s how the show got started.
Read the full Q&A here.
