In an ironic twist of fate, Best of Enemies — a new documentary about the rise of political punditry — is arriving in theaters at a time when Jon Stewart (a longtime critic of punditry) is going off the air as the host of The Daily Show. Political punditry, like television itself, has not always been with us although sometimes it seems that way.

In 1968 — one of the most tumultuous years of the 20th Century — ABC News changed televised debates forever when it bet on the idea that viewers would tune into a political debate between staunch conservative William F. Buckley Jr. and the ultraliberal Gore Vidal. The documentary explores a series of ten debates between the two feuding forces that occurred during the respective political conventions of...