Obama and C-Span

Some of my new favorite things in life are You Tube and C-Span. They are our impartial window into our government and the very ugly process of governing. It is important for us to understand how these systems work and how they can help us make more informed decisions. When President Obama promised multiple times to air the negotiating process for Health Care on C-Span it definitely resonnated with the American Public. Now that Obama has reneged on this pledge, C-Span has turned up the heat. "C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb wrote to leaders in the House and Senate Dec. 30 urging them to open 'all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings,' to televised coverage on his network.
'The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of the sessions LIVE and in their entirety,' he wrote. " (Fox News). The last thing in the world President Obama and the democrats want is transparency on this issue. But this lie will come back to haunt them, if we remember.

Here is the reprint from Wikipedia on C-Span and their history.

"C-SPAN (pronounced /si.spæn/, see-span), an abbreviation of Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network owned and operated by the cable industry. It airs non-stop coverage of government proceedings and public affairs programming. C-SPAN does not accept outside advertising; the only commercials aired are for its own programming and products.
C-SPAN operates three television channels, one radio station and several websites that provide streaming media including archives of many C-SPAN programs. The television networks are:
C-SPAN which provides uninterrupted live coverage of the House of Representatives. Also airs Washington Journal live every morning. C-SPAN2 which provides live coverage of the United States Senate. Besides its uninterrupted live coverage of the Senate it airs Book TV on weekends (branded Book TV on C-SPAN2). C-SPAN3 which features other uninterrupted live public affairs events and airs a large amount of archived historical programming branded as C-SPAN3

History.

All three channels also air events such as Presidential press conferences and speeches, as well as other government meetings such as Federal Communications Commission hearings and Pentagon press conferences. State events such as the Illinois Senate trial of former Governor Rod Blagojevich was simulcast from Illinois' state public affairs channel. Other state events include Governors' State of the State addresses. International events such as British House of Commons meetings are from The UK's BBC Parliament, and Canadian government events and shows from Canada's CPAC are also occasionally aired. Several non-government public affairs events are also featured. Channel usage for all of these events vary by date depending on availability.
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.
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.[1] It receives no funding from any government source, has no contract with the government, and does not 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 spin-off 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 spin-off, 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 from 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. 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.
C-SPAN also provides unedited, commercial-free coverage of campaign events, both on its weekly "Road to the White House" program and at its dedicated politics website, C-SPAN Politics.[2]

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.

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 — for instance, they carried CBC Television coverage of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Newscasts and other broadcasts in foreign languages are dubbed into English. C-SPAN also carries CBC coverage during events that impact Canadians, such as the Canadian federal elections, the death and state funeral of Pierre Trudeau, and the 2003 North America blackout.
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, Libertarian, 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. In 2008, C-SPAN gave coverage of Hurricane Gustav through New Orleans' NBC affiliate, WDSU, as well as Hurricane Ike coverage via Houston's CBS affiliate, KHOU.
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.[3]
In August 2007, C-SPAN unveiled a new "C-SPAN Video Library" webpage,[4] 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. In August 2008, C-SPAN announced that an embeddable video player would be part of a "convention hub" website that will track convention coverage by bloggers and social media.[5]

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.[6] C-SPAN considers video coverage of the floor proceedings of the U.S. House and Senate to be in the public domain.[7]
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 had posted.[8] 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,[9] causing concern from web bloggers.[10]
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.[11]
On December 14, 2006 C-SPAN wrote an open letter to Speaker Designate Nancy Pelosi requesting control over the cameras that record floor proceedings. Although C-SPAN airs the transmission, they do not have control over the cameras, in either body, themselves; they are controlled by the respective body of Congress.[12] The request was denied.[13]

Other controversies

Although C-SPAN states its commitment to providing politically balanced programming, C-SPAN has been criticized by progressive organizations for an alleged bias toward conservatives.[14] A study released by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) argued that C-SPAN's morning call-in show, Washington Journal, favored Republicans as guests over Democrats by a two-to-one margin during a six-month period in 2005.[15] A 2009 C-SPAN survey reported that its audience included almost equal numbers of liberals and conservatives, with 31% describing themselves as "liberal" compared to 28% calling themselves "conservative".[16]
In 2004, C-SPAN intended to broadcast a speech by Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt adjacent to a speech by Holocaust denier David Irving, who had unsuccessfully sued Lipstadt for libel in the United Kingdom four years earlier. Critics including the Anti-Defamation League decried C-SPAN's use of the word "balance" to describe its plan to cover both.[17] C-SPAN claimed the adjacent broadcasts would pair arguments of both plaintiff and defendant. However, once Lipstadt closed media access to her speech, C-SPAN canceled the broadcasts of both.[18]" Wikipedia.com

Some Ancient History

There is certainly historical precedent for interest groups manipulating the political process for gain and unfortunately negative repercussions for us, the people. Over the coming months I want to make the argument that you have no basis for accepting as truth facts that are generated by the folks in Washington DC. I am not promoting anarchy... I am promoting responsible skepticism that will enable you to make your own decisions.

Remember back to the 1940’s "Here's how to smoke all you want. If you really enjoy smoking, yet feel you smoke too much, you don't have to cut down and deprive yourself of smoking pleasure! Follow the lead of thousands of others - switch to new Julep Cigarettes. Smoke all you want without unpleasant symptoms of over-smoking! A smoking miracle? Yes, it's the triple miracle of mint. (1) Your mouth doesn't get smoke-weary! (2) Your throat doesn't get that harsh, hacking feeling! (3) Your breath avoids tobacco-taint! Get Juleps today - get more joy out of smoking!"Source: "Truth in Advertising Gallery"http://www.chickenhead.com/truth/index.html. Remember Chesterfield in the 1950s "AND NOW - CHESTERFIELD FIRST TO GIVE YOU SCIENTIFIC FACTS IN SUPPORT OF SMOKING."Small Print: "A responsible consulting organization reports a study by a competent medical specialist and staff on the effects of smoking Chesterfields...'It is my opinion that the ears, nose, throat and accessory organs of all participating subjects examined by me were not adversely affected in the six-month period by smoking the cigarettes provided." Source: "Truth in Advertising Gallery"http://www.chickenhead.com/truth/index.html

In 1912 Dr. Isaac Alder presents the first strong link between smoking and lung cancer. And in 1942 the Lancet publishes a paper by researcher L.M. Johnston describing addiction for the first time. So the information was there but it was not easy for the public to access. If fact it was far easier to keep smoking and to rationalize that the "scientific studies" must have credibility or someone would step forward. There is no doubt in my mind that at least some politicians knew that smoking was killing people; however, it was expedient to keep quiet. Whether it was the tobacco lobby or trading political support, you lost and they won. My Mother smoked for 53 years and died from related heart problems exacerbated by lung cancer which she miraculously beat. Maybe the outcome would have been the same, but it would have been nice if she had made her life decisions based on facts not lies.

You know the history of smoking advertisements. The companies had to place warnings on their packages, more studies revealed that smoking was a major contributor to early death, and smoking rates began to drop. The tobacco companies now market to third world countries. I am certain when the mass media and the internet catch up that this overseas marketing will certainly enhance our image overseas.

Do you believe that the U.S. Government was concerned about your health or the burden of paying for your bad choices. I do believe that there are honest people in government. I also believe that if political expediency requires a legislator to look the other way, that's a no brainer that historically has happened over and over again.

The Purpose of this Blog

In recent years the daily bombardment of misinformation is maddening at the very least, making even the most optimistic individual wonder where the truth is on any given subject. Yes technology has exacerbated the problem with pontificating experts on every media outlet. However, there is hope as these information outlets now have every factoid thrown out by every talking head immortalized for your consideration. Now with You Tube the archive will show you every little gem from the past that now in the present has been conveniently forgotten and emphatically denied in the defence of the agenda being sold to us. The question is whether we have become so jaundiced and confused that we are not listening. At the very least we should remember how to be skeptical. Undoubtedly, part of the problem is that there is a certain amount of resignation borne from the overwhelming sense of impotence as we as citizens lose more and more control of every aspect of our lives. This oppressive frustration is non-partisan and universal in every sense. More than ever we need to pay attention now or be prepared to give away every major decision in our lives. If I can make a contribution in drawing attention to this loss of individualism, then maybe something will be achieved with the effort.

My personal background was strongly influenced by the Republican party, which starting about a decade ago has left me underwhelmed by their seeming lack of compatible values. If you need a label, call me an independent conservative that would vote for either a democrat or a republican if they are fiscally conservative, strong on defense, committed to the concept of human liberty, and are not for sale to the highest bidder. My candidates are hard to find.

I do have another blog at www.arttrak.blogspot.com. which avoids politics but still takes a view of the arts that you may not see in the main stream art world publications.