C-SPAN Totally Explained

Everything about C-span totally explained

C-SPAN (officially, the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network) is an American cable television network dedicated to airing non-stop coverage of government proceedings and public affairs programming.
In addition to C-SPAN Radio and the C-SPAN website, C-SPAN is made up of several television channels:

C-SPAN features live coverage of the House of Representatives
C-SPAN2 covers the Senate and airs Book TV on weekends
C-SPAN3 covers other live events and airs archived historical programming

The bulk of C-SPAN's operations are located on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., but they also maintain archives in West Lafayette, Indiana at the Purdue Research Park under the direction of Professor Robert X. Browning.

History

Brian Lamb, C-SPAN's chairman and CEO, conceived of C-SPAN while working at Cablevision, a cable industry trade magazine, as their Washington D.C. bureau chief. C-SPAN was created as a cable-industry financed, non-profit network for televising sessions of the U.S. Congress and other public affairs event and policy discussions. Bob Rosencrans, a cable industry pioneer, was alone in providing the initial seed funding of $25,000 to start up C-SPAN.

It receives no funding from any government source, has no contract with the government, and doesn't sell sponsorships or advertising. It strives for neutrality and a lack of bias in its public affairs programming.
   C-SPAN first went on the air on March 19, 1979, broadcasting a speech by then-congressman Al Gore. C-SPAN2, a spinoff network, covers all live sessions of the U.S. Senate and went on the air on June 2, 1986, with the original channel then focusing on the House. The latest spinoff, C-SPAN3, began broadcasting on January 22, 2001, and shows other government-related live events along with historical programming from C-SPAN's archives.
   On October 9, 1997, C-SPAN launched C-SPAN Radio, which broadcasts on WCSP 90.1 FM in Washington, D.C.. The radio station, which is also available on XM and was on Sirius satellite radio(2002-2006), covers similar events as its sister TV networks, often simulcasting their programming.
   All three video channels, plus the radio channel, are globally available through streaming media via the C-SPAN web site. Windows Media Player or a similar media player must be installed to stream videos. Additionally, some programs are archived on the Internet for weeks or for longer times.
   On February 12, 2003, C-SPAN launched the Amos B. Hostetter Distance Learning Program with the University of Denver. Steve Scully, Political Editor and Chair of Communication, instructs the course from the C-SPAN center in Washington, D.C. and features prominent guests in politics and journalism who can field questions live to students in Denver over 1,500 miles away. Soon after, the program was also expanded to Pace University in New York. CampaignNetwork.org is a collaborative project with CQPolitics.com covering election reporting announced on August 31, 2006.

Coverage

In addition to live coverage of House and Senate proceedings and local and general elections, the three channels air government hearings, press conferences and meetings of various political, media, and non-profit organizations; book discussions, interviews, and occasionally proceedings of the Parliament of Canada, Parliament of the United Kingdom (usually Prime Minister's Questions and the State Opening of Parliament) and other governments when they discuss matters of importance to viewers in the U.S. Similarly, the networks will sometimes carry news reports from around the world when major events occur. Newscasts and other broadcasts in foreign languages are dubbed into English.
   C-SPAN has submitted requests to air live United States Supreme Court proceedings, but has always been denied camera access. However, the network has aired audio tapes of the Court in session on significant cases and has covered individual Supreme Court Justices' speaking engagements.
   C-SPAN is the only cable channel that covers the Republican and Democratic presidential nominating convention in their entirety. Following the deaths of Ronald Reagan in 2004, Rosa Parks in 2005 and Gerald Ford in 2006, C-SPAN featured live, uninterrupted coverage of the visitors who came to the Capitol Rotunda to pay their final respects. The network also provided coverage of Lady Bird Johnson's funeral in Stonewall, Texas.
   Additionally, C-SPAN simulcasts NASA Space Shuttle mission launches and landings live, using the footage and audio from NASA TV.

C-SPAN and the Internet

All of C-SPAN's live feeds are streamed free of charge on its World Wide Web site in both Real Media and Windows Media formats. Selected C-SPAN programs are archived for the general public on its website for at least two weeks, while others remain permanently accessible. C-SPAN has exclusive rights to all recordings and may charge from $30 to $45 for DVD copies of programs. (External Link

) In August of 2007, C-SPAN unveiled a new "C-SPAN Video Libarary" webpage (External Link

), which will eventually provide free access to all of its past programs--including Congressional proceedings, hyperlinked to corresponding Congressional Record entries--that are not otherwise subject to copyright.

Organization

Uncommonly for a television network, C-SPAN is operated as a non-profit organization by the National Cable Satellite Corporation, whose board of directors consists primarily of representatives of the largest cable companies. C-SPAN accepts no advertising; instead, it receives nearly all its funding from subscriber fees charged to cable and DBS operators. Contrary to popular perception, C-SPAN receives no funding from government sources.

Following

In its early days, cable companies tried to replace C-SPAN with revenue-producing channels. As stated above, C-SPAN is funded by the cable industry; thus, the industry loses money airing C-SPAN. However, C-SPAN had developed somewhat of a "cult following" among political junkies and citizens who had always wanted to see what was really happening with their elected officials. Avid C-SPAN viewers often refer to themselves as "C-SPAN Junkies," "SPANners," or "Spanheads".
Over time, the cable companies and the general public realized that C-SPAN provided a desired and much needed public service; a "window" into the operations of Congress. C-SPAN has never had the ratings of major networks, but its devoted following (External Link

) (External Link

) ensured that it would remain part of the cable industry, and all attempts at replacing it with other channels have long ceased.
In 2007, Brian Lamb was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, primarily for founding and running C-SPAN. Appropriately, the award ceremony was broadcast by C-SPAN.

C-SPAN and Copyright

On March 7, 2007 C-SPAN liberalized its copyright policy for current, future, and past coverage of any official events sponsored by Congress and any federal agency and now allows for non-commercial copying, sharing, and posting of C-SPAN video on the Internet, with attribution. (External Link

)
Prior to this change, C-SPAN engaged in numerous actions to stop parties from making unauthorized uses of their content online including cases where the footage is the House and Senate proceedings. For example, Dem Bloggers received a take down request for clips they'd posted. (External Link

) In May 2006, C-SPAN requested the removal of the Stephen Colbert performance at the White House Correspondent's Dinner from YouTube while allowing it to remain on Google Video (External Link

), causing concern from web bloggers. (External Link

)
Websites such as metavid and voterwatch.org make House and Senate video records freely available. C-SPAN contested metavid usage of C-SPAN video which resulted in metavid taking down portions of the archive which were produced with C-SPAN's cameras while maintaining an archive of government produced content. (External Link

) On December 14th 2006 C-SPAN wrote an open letter to Speaker Designate Nancy Pelosi requesting that floor proceedings be covered by C-SPAN cameras. This would put the floor footage under the same restrictive license as C-SPAN produced content.(External Link

) The request was denied (External Link

)

Allegations of bias and other controversies

Despite its stated commitment to providing politically balanced programming, C-SPAN shows such as Washington Journal, Booknotes, Q & A, and Afterwords have alternatively been accused of having a conservative or liberal bias. The watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) released a study of C-SPAN's morning call-in show Washington Journal, showing that Republicans were favored as guests over Democrats by a two-to-one margin during a six-month period in 2005, and that people of color are underrepresented. FAIR and critics including guests have charged that the shows Booknotes and Afterwords highlight more conservative authors than liberals.
In 2004, C-SPAN planned to broadcast a speech by Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt paired with a speech by Holocaust denier David Irving. Irving unsuccessfully sued Lipstadt for libel in the United Kingdom in 2000. C-SPAN claimed airing Lipstadt's speech adjacently with Irving's would provide a "balance" of opinions. However, due to the uproar from outraged viewers, liberal groups, and Jewish organizations, C-SPAN canceled the broadcasts of both speeches.
In 2005, the left-leaning media watchdog group Media Matters for America took issue that L. Brent Bozell, the head of the right-leaning Media Research Center, was booked by C-SPAN2 to interview former CBS producer Mary Mapes on After Words, following an incident where the authenticity of some documents used to support a report on then-campaigning President George W. Bush's Texas National Guard stint were questioned.(External Link

)

Past chairmen

Bob Rosencrans

John Saeman

Ed Allen

Gene Schneider

Shows

After Words

America and the Courts

Booknotes

Road to the White House

Q&A

Washington JournalFurther Information
Get more info on 'C-span'.

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