Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context military English) The line from which soldiers fire their weapons at a target; especially the front line of troops in a battle 2 A row of shooters 3 (context idiomatic English) The vanguard of an activity
WordNet
n. the line from which soldiers deliver fire
the most advanced and responsible group in an activity; "the firing line is where the action is"
Wikipedia
Firing Line was an American public affairs show founded and hosted by conservative William F. Buckley, Jr., founder and publisher of National Review magazine. Its 1,504 episodes over 33 years made Firing Line the longest-running public affairs show in television history with a single host. The program, which featured many influential public figures in the United States, won an Emmy Award in 1969.
Although the program's format varied over the years, it typically featured Buckley interviewing a guest and exchanging views, with the two seated together in front of a small studio audience. Standing or sitting further away in the studio, an "examiner", typically a political liberal, would ask questions, generally toward the end of the show. Guests were people notable in the fields of politics to religion, literature and academia, and their views could sharply contrast or be in strong agreement with Buckley's. Most guests were intellectuals or those in positions of power, and they were interviewed about ideas and issues of the day.
Reflecting Buckley's talents and preferences, the exchange of views was almost always polite, and the guests were given time to answer questions at length, slowing the pace of the program. "The show was devoted to a leisurely examination of issues and ideas at an extremely high level", according to Jeff Greenfield, who frequently appeared as an examiner. John Kenneth Galbraith said of the program, "Firing Line is one of the rare occasions when you have a chance to correct the errors of the man who's interrogating you."
The show might be compared in politeness and style of discourse to other national public interview shows, specifically those hosted by Charlie Rose or Terry Gross, but Buckley was clearly interested in debate.
In a 1999 Salon.com article, The Weekly Standard editor William Kristol summarized Buckley's approach to the show: "Buckley really believes that in order to convince, you have to debate and not just preach, which of course means risking the possibility that someone will beat you in debate." Buckley was not averse to asking tough questions of friendly guests, either, according to Tom Wolfe who recalled the interviewer asking him whether there were really any original insights in his book The Bonfire of the Vanities.
Beginning with the move of the program to public television in 1971, the theme music of Firing Line was the Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Third Movement (Allegro assai), by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Firing Line ( foaled January 19, 2012) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse, best known as the runner-up to American Pharoah in the 2015 Kentucky Derby.
Firing Line may refer to:
- Firing Line (TV series), American television series
- Firing Line (horse), American racehorse
- Firing Line: Cardiff Castle Museum of the Welsh Soldier, museum in Cardiff Castle, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Usage examples of "firing line".
The crowded ranks of wounded, the stench and -the pitiful cries, a never-ending stream of limping figures coming down the street from the firing line, and from the look of the doctors' haggard faces it had seemed to Bolitho that they worked with neither respite nor feeling, their eyes only on the wretched man who happened to be in front of them at any particular time.
Of course, Fitzduane was supposed to have left before the charge was blown so that he, at least, would be out of the firing line.
Cooks and clerks found themselves in the firing line, along with medics hastily armed with the rifles of the fallen.
The firing line of Gurkhas and Australians -with Hunter's gun included -would set up a combined barrage at anything that approached the carrier on either port or starboard side.
He reeled back to the firing line, faced the wrong way, had to be turned, and then zip!
I want them to form a firing line in these fields here, to left and right, using those stone walls we passed.
Send a man alone against a firing line, with no one to watch him, and he might well run away.
He was keeping the reins and the cheek-levers they controlled tight, and slapping at men's shoulders with the flat of his scimitar as he hustled them into a semblance of a firing line.
From behind rocks on the firing line, men were shooting on the enemy in the pass.
They were standing in the sweltering heat of a Stolsh firing range as Fielder paced the firing line, looking at his twenty students.