It’s not going to win any camerawork awards. But if the choice is really a very basic recording vs. copyrighted multicamera coverage, I think the public interest is clear. Kick C-SPAN out, and pick up a webcam at Staples on your way over to the Capitol. Or if you want, you can borrow my phone. As New Hampshire’s House just proved, it’s not rocket science.

I’ve long been a fan of C-span and when I first got cable I soon found that I was watching it a large percentage of the time. I learned a lot of things about how our government works that were not covered in my high school civics classes, and now I find they don’t even teach civics any more! I tell everyone I talk to not to let another election go by without watching a few hundred hours of C-span (unfortunately almost nobody takes this advice).

In protest to the shoddy workmanship of most cable content I canceled my service several years ago and find myself much more informed about the world than I was as a couch potato, but part of the reason for this is that I still watch and read C-Span on the Internet. I constantly worry that they will start requiring some proof that I have cable service in order to get to their programs, which are in fact partially funded by those same cable monopolies.

I am of the opinion that all of the coverage of government should be in the public domain, and if the taxpayers have to foot the bill to make it so, then fine. Let C-Span broadcast those materials for the cable community and turn the digitized versions over to archive.org, Google, or anyone else willing to host them. I have no problem with C-Span selling the DVDs, CD, and so forth that they do either, such things are a convenience for many people who are not savvy about downloading, or don’t have fast connections, but for the rest of us there is no reason we should have to ask permission of C-Span or anyone else to make use of public hearings.

C-Span is at the same time performing a public service and, as your article indicates, possibly serving as a barrier to an even greater public service. One has to wonder if they have not become so set in their ways that they don’t want anyone rocking the boat.

Let’s rock!

And as a matter of fact, Carl’s letter (http://public.resource.org/dear_brian.html) links to them.

I’d sure like to see how C-Span is actually set up, who runs it, and where their funds come from. If they are a 501(c)(3), they should have anb IRS 990 on file for each year.

Interesting…