Washington Today: House marks 25 years before the camera’s eye
WASHINGTON (AP) — The political passions, the parliamentary power plays, the drama of a close vote, have all helped make C-SPAN coverage of Congress one of the longest-running shows on television.
The House on Tuesday celebrated the 25th anniversary of the first gavel-to-gavel TV coverage of its proceedings, an event that, despite some initial misgivings, ushered in a new era of political openness.
C-SPAN, said Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Administration Committee, “became an essential tool in our country for fostering civic education and governmental accountability.”
The idea of televising the congressional debate goes back to the dawn of the TV age, in the 1940s, when it was propounded by the late Rep. Claude Pepper, R-Fla. And there were some memorable telecasts of specific hearings such as the 1951 Senate investigation into organized crime, the 1954 McCarthy hearings and the Watergate hearings of 1973.
But traditionalists were reluctant to let cameras into the House and Senate chambers out of concern it would slow things down because too many lawmakers would want to give speeches.
Some of the older members, said Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who was first elected in 1976, were “vehemently against it.” The concern was that “the cameras would roam around and look for the member who was nodding off, look for the member reading the newspaper on the floor,” he said.
But attitudes changed in the post-Watergate era, and on March 19, 1979, Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, or C-SPAN, with a staff of four, brought live proceedings of the House into American homes for the first time. Senate broadcasts began in 1986.
One of those four was Brian Lamb, the man who had the idea for a public affairs network and who remains C-SPAN’s chairman and chief executive.
Then-Rep. Al Gore, D-Tenn., a leading proponent of TV coverage, gave one of the first televised speeches in the House, saying the marriage of the medium and the House’s open debate had the potential “to revitalize representative democracy.”
The late Rep. Tip O’Neill, D-Mass., after becoming Speaker of the House in 1977, also made TV coverage a priority. “He intuitively knew that it was a decision whose time had come,” Markey said.
O’Neill got into one of the biggest battles over C-SPAN coverage. Newt Gingrich and other young Republicans, shut down by the Democratic majority during the day, took advantage of an after-hours period called “special orders” to give long, anti-Democratic speeches before the camera.
In 1984, O’Neill ordered cameramen to pan the chamber, to show viewers that Gingrich and his allies were speaking to a deserted room, prompting a bitter exchange between the two.
To avoid such disputes, the cameras are owned by the House and run by congressional staff and, except during votes, focus almost entirely either on the rostrum or the people speaking.
C-SPAN, a privately funded nonprofit organization, reached 3.5 million American homes in 1979. It now has a staff of 275 and is available to 86 million households. C-SPAN says 34.5 million people tune in once or twice every week, which it compares to the average 17 million who watched the political drama West Wing weekly during the 2000-2001 season.
Senate historian Donald Ritchie said the camera has brought other subtle changes to Congress: It has led to the proliferation of charts and other visual aids during debates, and has allowed lawmakers, lobbyists and journalists to keep a close watch on floor action without being there.
Ritchie also recalled a speech by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., to the pages — the high school students who serve as congressional messengers — noting that they all dressed a lot neater than they had in the past because their mothers could see them on television.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Abrams has covered Congress for The Associated Press since 1993.