Posted on 12/22/2006 9:52:21 PM PST by txradioguy
Article Launched: 12/22/2006 04:38:28 PM MST
WASHINGTON -- Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi cited the need to preserve the ''dignity and decorum'' of the House as she rejected a request Friday that C-SPAN operate its own cameras in covering the chamber.
The public service network has provided gavel-to-gavel television coverage of House proceedings since 1979. But the House leader has kept control of the cameras, with coverage generally limited to tight shots of the speaker or the podium.
The situation is similar in the Senate, which C-SPAN has televised since 1986.
C-SPAN's chairman and chief executive told Pelosi, D-Calif., that under this arrangement, cameras are prevented ''from taking individual reaction shots or from panning the chamber, leaving viewers with an incomplete picture of what's happening in the House of Representatives.''
http://www.elpasotimes.com/election/ci_4887745
HELP!!!! I need some advice in case I meet her Royal Highness Nance Pelosi, do women curtsy and men bow to her?
Same as Hastert, and Gingrich before him, and Foley, Wright and O'Neill before them.
The main issue is "special orders." Basically, it's a periiod in which any member can give a one-minute speech on whatever strikes his fancy, with the license to "revise and extend" those remarks. In practice, it's an opportunity for any member to put anything he wants into the Congressional Record. Even bothering to give a spoken address at all is a bit of cermony and protocol. No one watches and no one really cares until it shows up in a press release and folks quote it on talk shows.
In the early days of C-SPAN, under House speaker Tip O'Neill, the camera panned the chamber during special orders, showing a completely empty house chamber. One speaker in the well, a presiding member in the Speaker's chair, a stenographer and a couple of pages, and an otherwise empty room.
It made the whole exercise look silly, which it pretty much is. After that flap, the C-SPAN camera angles have been pretty conservative, conventional, and actually incredibly predictable. There are really only about half a dozen shots.
The "news" in this story is that there is no news, that nothing has changed. The House and Senate maintain control over day-to-day operations. A media pool operates for special occasions like the State of the Union Address or joint sessions of Congress.
I see your point, but shouldn't coverage be that as if one were actually there, sitting in the public gallery? I say pan away and let the elected reps worry about being on their best behavior.
The part that I find maddening is that we pay for this bunch of posturing, preening, power-hungry predators. They have wonderful salaries, health care, pensions, etc., and it's all at our expense, literally. We must be fools.
Carolyn
Maybe Mzzzzz. Pelosi does not want the C-Span cameras to catch DemocRATS taking lobbyist cash on the chamber floor.
Yup, the reps who stayed home last 11/7 to "send a message", or voted libertarian, are getting their reward now : the REAL dem agenda. Most of us knew full well that their campaign promises of holier-than-thou/anti-war was just another lie, and kicking CSPAN out is proof positive.
The cockroaches are turning out the lights.
The Devolution (of our country) Will Not Be Televised.
Well, this tells you where Pelosi and Co. will be headed on the
fairness doctrine.
Do the members of Congress have an expectation of privacy while conducting
the people's business in open session?
But they don't mind putting traffic cameras on every pole and surveillance
cameras bristling on every public building.
Pelosi gets a two=fer: less coverage of some courageous Republicans
holding back the tide, less coverage of Democrats doing what Democrats do.
And we won't really see Pelosi's worst nightmare: if some new Democrats
actually (and unbelievably) do turn out to be moderates...and
challenge her in open session.
That's because we're much too stupid to watch our government in action and have any valid opinion .. or she doesn't want us to know what really happens on the House [containing people WE VOTED FOR WHO ARE SUPPOSED TO BE REPRESENTING US] .. Hmmmm ..?? What are they doing as our reps that they don't want us to know ..??
I thought it was Bush who was the "secretive" one ..??
I wish people would always remember the word "projection" everytime a liberal opens their mouth. That psychological disorder is who liberals are. If they say the repubs are a "culture of corruption" .. what they really mean is they are the real culture of corruption and they want to throw [or project] their guilt upon others.
If you listen to world leaders who are tyrants and dictators, they use the same pattern of speech .. calling Bush .. Hitler, stupid, idiot, etc. It's all the same pattern of "projection". They want you to believe they are superior to you .. when in fact they are inferior.
We should all be falling over laughing at some of the stuff the liberals try to put forth as the truth.
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