News. Debate. Community. Levers for a better democracy.
Open Government

5 fun facts about C-SPAN on its 40th birthday

Geoff West
Mar 19 2019

Forty years ago today, C-SPAN first aired live and unfiltered coverage of Congress — broadcasts that engaged citizens now rely on as a bedrock of open American democracy.

Gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House began March 19, 1979, with a one-minute speech by a 30-year-old Democrat named Al Gore, who would later be elected senator in time to give the first speech when the Senate allowed coverage of its flor proceedings to begin in 1986.

Here are five factoids to drop at any celebration marking C-SPAN's anniversary:

  • The same six cameras in the House, and six more in the Senate, have always been used to capture the proceedings. Congressional employees control the cameras and audio from inside the chambers. C-SPAN broadcasts the raw feeds while adding its own graphics.
  • The network created the first regularly scheduled national TV call-in program in 1980. The first caller hailed from Yankton, S.D.
  • Nearly 250,000 hours of archived video is available for visitors to stream online. The archives go back to 1987, when the organization began digitizing its broadcasts. Earlier recordings are stored in-house on VHS cassettes.
  • In its first year, the network reached 10 million TV households. Today it's 90 million homes, roughly three out of every four with a TV.
  • The acronym stands for Cable-Satellite Pubic Affairs Network.
Related Articles Around the Web
congress open government
News. Community. Debate. Levers for better democracy.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter.

Big Picture
True
Zach Gibson/Getty Images

During his State of the Union address this year, President Trump said he would stonewall the legislative process if members of Congress don't play ball, writes Neal.

A year of broken standards for America’s democracy

Neal is federal government affairs manager at R Street Institute, a nonpartisan and pro-free-market public policy research organization.

The term "democratic norms" has become a misnomer over the last year. America's governing institutions are undermined by elected officials who dishonor their offices and each other. Standards of behavior and "normal" processes of governance seem to be relics of a simpler time. Our democracy has survived thus far, but the wounds are many.

Free speech and free press have been the White House's two consistent whipping posts. Comments such as "I think it is embarrassing for the country to allow protestors" and constant attacks on press credibility showcase President Trump's disdain for the pillars of democracy. Traditional interactions between the administration and the press are no longer taken for granted. Demeaning, toxic criticisms have become so common that they're being ignored. As the administration revokes critics' press passes and daily briefings are canceled, normalcy in this arena is sorely missed.

Keep reading... Show less
Voting
Register2Vote

The founders of Register2Vote, Madeline Eden and Jeremy Smith, preparing registration information for mailing in Texas last year.

After successful Texas debut, tech-based voter registration platform goes national

Having had remarkable success at signing people up to vote in Texas last year, an Austin group of activists is expanding its pilot program into a full-blown national effort to overcome the sometimes ignored first hurdle for people in the voting process — registration.

"There are millions of voters who are registered who don't get out to vote," said Christopher Jasinski, director of partnerships for Register2Vote. "But the unmeasured part of the pie is the actual number of unregistered voters."

Keep reading... Show less