C-SPAN Calls on Boehner to Show How Congress Reacts
BY Nancy Scola | Monday, November 15 2010
Ah, another change of power on Congress, and another call by C-SPAN to let them finally film the goings-on of the legislature in the way that they'd film any other debate-type event -- by capturing not just the face of whomever's talking, but reaction shots of the crowd. Brian Lamb, C-SPAN's CEO, wrote presumed incoming Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday (pdf):
Currently, House floor debates are not in full public view because private news media cameras are still not permitted in the House chamber. Rules established when the House installed cameras in 1979 restrict congressional camera operators to head-on shots of members at the podium and committee tables and, they are prohibited from taking reaction shots or shots of the chamber, leaving viewers with a less-than-complete view of your debates.
In this spirit we are writing to renew a request we made to Speakers Gingrich and Pelosi as they assumed office -- to allow House floor proceedings to also be covered by C-SPAN cameras.
The cynical take is that Congress is loath to reveal that many times when someone's chattering on on the House floor, they're doing it to a near empty room. There's so little actual debate happening there that it makes a joke of the notion, but you can kinda gloss over the theater aspect of what happens in Congress if you're only showing one member after another trodding up to the podium to deliver soaring oratory. But train a camera on the seats, and you'll pretty quickly get a sense of just how few people show up to participate. That's the reality, though, and C-SPAN's job isn't to make Congress look good; it's to show the American people what's taking place in their legislature. Call it tough love.
Gingrich and Pelosi weren't keen on the idea, but Boehner has made big deal of attempting to make the House more transparent. Back in January, he pulled together historical references to lend his support to C-SPAN's call to broadcast health care bill negotiations. "Since the first New England town meetings of the colonial era," wrote Boehner, "open government has been a hallmark of American democracy." Stay tuned to see if now that he's calling the shots, American's long history of open government will now include getting reaction shots from the House floor.