25 years of C-SPAN call-ins
I’ve always admired C-SPAN, the cable channel that covers Washington like no other. They are actually three cable channels and a radio station, all without commercials, and all without significant editing. If it happens in Washington, or relates to Washington, you can bet they’ll be there. No soundbites either. They tape before the speech begins and after it’s over. They air live speeches from the Senate and House floor - even when the speaker is the only one in the room. (You’d be amazed how often that happens!)
This weekend marks 25 years of C-SPAN’s call-in shows. If you want to speak your mind to a Senator, a lobbyist, or a reporter, this is where it happens. They take calls from all kinds. Half the fun is listening to the half-baked arguments from a caller and watching the guest cringe, but knowing that’s American reality - not the staffers they usually hear filtered comments from.
There’s a good article on the 25 year anniversary of C-SPAN’s call-ins at http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/ny-ettvtwo4456606oct07,0,5807724,print.story. And of course there’s C-SPAN’s web site, http://www.cspan.org/, where you can watch or listen to endless hours of truly interesting and important discussions.
While here I’ll share my favorite C-SPAN moment. They send camera crews out to cover Presidential races. So do the other networks, but they start early (they started their 2008 race coverage months ago!) and include endless “behind the scenes” coverage the big networks would never air. They of course covered the late Senator Paul Tsongas’ election campaign. They had scheduled to cover one of his full days campaigning. It turned out to be the day he was bowing out of the race. Instead of C-SPAN going home, they realized this was an important part of the Tsongas campaign. Cameras were rolling as the Senator made countless calls informing his supporters he was withdrawing, as he spoke candidly with family members, and later as he went swimming to clear his mind. Sounds boring as all anything, but it was powerful, emotional stuff. Nothing like “reality” television of today.
