C-SPAN

C-SPAN: A Brief History

In The C-SPAN Revolution, Stephen Frantzich and John Sullivan provide background and the story of televised coverage of the U.S. House of Representatives. The origins of C-SPAN itself date from the late 1970s, when the House of Representatives allowed full television coverage of its sessions in 1977, by a vote of 342 to 44. Thirty years earlier, in 1947, television cameras had recorded the opening of Congress, establishing the first stepping stones toward making the workings of government open to mass media viewing by the public. In 1970, House committees became open to the broadcasting of public hearings with the Legislative Reorganization Act, and in 1977, the House conducted an in-house test of televised coverage.

The televised feed of the House’s proceedings, although available to anyone, lacked an outlet. It was during this time that Brian Lamb, the Washington bureau chief for an industry publication called Cablevision, pitched the idea for such a conduit of government to cable industry leaders. Lamb had worked in various governmental jobs prior to his job at the industry publication, including as press secretary for U.S. Sen. Peter H. Dominick (R-CO) and in the press office of the White House Office of Telecommunication Policy.

One of the experiences that influenced Lamb’s idea for a public affairs channel was when he witnessed an anti-war protest at the Pentagon during the Vietnam War years. The protestors became vocal and active only when a network television reporter was on camera. “Lamb realized that what he was going to see on the evening news was much different from what had actually happened,” noted Frantzich and Sullivan (p. 26). This concern that the public get a more complete picture of newsworthy events contributed to Lamb’s vision: “My experiences with Washington coverage at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill led me to believe that there had to be a better way to cover public affairs” (p. 28).

[Page 428]With the House television signal sitting there and the cable industry looking for new programming ideas, Lamb—who had been thinking about a network dedicated to public affairs for a while—formally presented it to a group of cable operators in 1977, according to Frantzich’s biography, Founding Father: How C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb Changed Politics in America. With support of U.S. Rep. Lionel Van Deerlin (D-CA), to whom he pitched the idea after an interview, Lamb met with House Speaker Thomas “Tip” O’Neill in 1978 about the idea; O’Neill himself had been dissatisfied with the networks’ “soundbite” coverage of the House. With only a verbal agreement that C-SPAN would provide gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House, the deal was sealed. The House would have control over and staff the cameras during sessions, however. With the financial backing of cable leaders, C-SPAN launched on March 19, 1979, with welcoming remarks by Rep. Al Gore Jr. (D-TN) and a “routine” debate on the creation of a committee studying jurisdictions of committees (Frantzich & Sullivan, 1996, p. 38). The House coverage via C-SPAN went to 350 cable systems serving 3.5 million households.

...