By Martha Ewing ’26
Exciting news is circulating campus, or at least around the CJD and Civic Journalism Community. Common Ground, a political televised “talk show” produced by PBS is coming to the Frederick Gunn School! This 16-18 episode conversational show is hosted by Jane Whitney, a former NBC News Correspondent, who hosted the popular The Jane Whitney Show in 1992. Common Ground invites influential figures who have worked in places and departments such as Wall Street and people who have had experience in financial or political journalism. As depicted in its name, the target of the show is to remain unbiased in order to emphasize nonpartisan democracy, allowing their viewers to gain perspectives that challenge their personal opinions, becoming well-rounded citizens. It is a space in which people from different political parties can come together to talk about prevalent issues and find the so-called “common ground”.
This production is scheduled to film its next season here at Gunn in the TPACC next fall. The episodes air twice a month and are almost an hour long each. The previous season was filmed at Wamogo highschool in Litchfield and was open to the public to watch the live taping.
A few members of the Highlander News Network went to a recent episode, taped on February 12th, titled, “A Tale of Two Economies”, with the subtitle “How Wealth Inequity is Making America Poor”. In this episode, Jane Whitney hosted Anand Giridharadas, Ebony Reed, Louise Story, and, for the financial advice section, Suze Orman. Topics such as race in America, financial security, and financial predictions were covered.
The news that Common Ground is coming to our school is incredibly exciting. Having a politics based television show that is being filmed here is a first for our school. Additionally, students will be able to help out with the production and the curriculum that will be created around this show might spark an interest for careers in broadcast journalism and television production.
