As C-Span Turns 40, a Top Executive Reflects on Bringing Cameras to Congress

"Q&A" and "Afterwords" are two of the greatest shows in history! Okay, you won't find us watching debates on corn production but those two shows give us more value from C-SPAN than it costs us taxpayers. Why is it "C-Span" in article?

First off the correct way to write C-SPAN is all caps. Second off you could have gotten a more recent picture of Susan. That control room with standard def monitors has to be more than 10 years old.

I feel that it is unfortunate and unfair that this article on C-Span's 40th anniversary doesn't in any way note the contributions of Brian Lamb who founded the network and appeared in many of its programs, notably book notes in which he did splendid, revealing, educational and occasionally very humorous interviews of authors. Not only has C-Span produced its coverage of congress, it also has reached out to communities and educators with many resources to inspire civics and history teaching. Brian Lamb, now retired, gave us a treasure through which each of us can inform our citizenship.

For a reflection to not include how the presence of television cameras is linked to increased partisanship and the increase in self-aggrandizing behavior would be less than fully reflective. How exactly did Newt Gingrich become Speaker? I wonder if the Founders were on to something in 1787 when they met behind closed doors? Not a popular view today but reaching agreements across the aisle might require a degree of space to explore that which is possible. If the incentives to perform in a more strident behavior are too great, the grandstanding will overwhelm the responsibility of fashioning laws based on compromise.

I used to watch C-Span and enjoyed the call in shows. But C-Span's policy of letting every idiot express themselves without criticism, eventually chased away all the callers who knew what they were talking about.

I have a lot less time to watch C-Span now, but found it to be quite useful when I had daytime hours available and wanted to see what was going on in Congress. If your home absolutely must have a TV on in the background, putting it to a C-Span channel is not the worst of ideas.

C-Span Book TV, I never miss it. I watch it on and off, all weekend long. IMHO, the best program on TV.