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- After covering the House speaker drama, C-SPAN says it’s time for their cameras to have greater access.
- The network requested that Kevin McCarthy allow C-SPAN to cover more House floor proceedings.
- The network normally uses government-controlled cameras in the chamber that are restricted to wide-angle shots.
After providing rare footage of the chaotic House speaker vote last week, C-SPAN says it’s time for their cameras to have greater access to the House chamber.
The cable and satellite television network’s co-CEO Susan Swain, in a letter Tuesday, asked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to allow C-SPAN to cover House floor proceedings on behalf of their network and all Congressionally-accredited news organizations.
—CSPAN (@cspan) January 10, 2023
C-SPAN, a not-for-profit public affairs network, normally uses government-controlled cameras in the chambers that are restricted to wide-angle shots. But the network was allowed to cover last week’s House speaker drama with it’s own cameras from different angles — and they gave viewers a fascinating, behind-the-scenes show.
“This is the best season of cspan…ever,” tweeted comedian Jon Stewart on January 4.
The C-SPAN request came after Rep. Matt Gaetz — a breakout star of last week’s House speaker C-SPAN show — introduced an amendment to House rules to allow C-SPAN cameras on the floor during regular proceedings.
A spokesperson for McCarthy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In her letter, Swain noted that there has been “little change in the strict rules” for video coverage of floor proceedings. The public, press, and House member’s reaction to C-SPAN’s coverage of the the House speaker votes last week “along with the ‘transparency’ themes in your new rules package — have encouraged us to resubmit a request we have made to your predecessors without success,” she wrote.
She asked to install a few additional cameras in the House chamber to create a “second journalistic product,” in addition to the House Recording System. If ongoing coverage is not acceptable, she requested McCarthy permit C-SPAN and other independent journalists to cover key legislative sessions.
Video produced by House Recording Studio government employees, she wrote, “lacks the transparency that C-SPAN, as a journalistic institution is able to provide.”
—CSPAN (@cspan) January 9, 2023
