If you can stomach a swim through the major news networks, check out the big boys and consider what you have observed. News is no longer such but rather entertainment. There is not a single aspect of the news that is not infiltrated by and consumed with the entertainment factor. This includes everything from fancy graphics to theme songs to dramatic segment titles. However, within this sea of noise is one network that has managed, mostly, to avoid the entertainment element in news. And, behind this network for its entire history, one man has run it with dignity and focus. The network is C-SPAN and the man is its CEO (who has recently retired) Brian Lamb.
Famed cultural critic Neil Postman once discussed the nature of television news and how the paradigm by which news networks present was (and is) based on entertainment. It trivializes the concept of news and challenges the definition of what should be classified as news. The 24-hour news networks further distort what constitutes news and the appropriate way in which to present the same. Today, one can watch the news and observe the screaming, over-gesticulating anchors and wonder where the adults are. It is little wonder that fewer people watch the news on television because the viewers question the worth of what is being presented.
In the late 1970s, former political operative Brian Lamb proposed a network that would broadcast live coverage of House and Senate deliberations. What began as a peek behind the legislative curtain of the Congress has expanded over the years to include committee hearings, congressional testimony, British parliamentary proceedings and political and cultural interviews. The Sunday morning news show on C-SPAN includes a host with a newspaper, a highlighter and a string of callers posing questions. However, nothing is focused on the presenter and technology is non-existence. Brian Lamb conducted that Sunday morning show for decades and recently, shifted to interviews of authors and political figures and never made the conversation about himself or the presentation but solely about the subject.
Over the decades, Mr. Lamb has created a network that defies the trend and instead of making itself the story, simply points the lens at the news-makers and allows the viewer to determine their own opinion. No other network operates with such respect and deference to the viewers’ intelligence. As the shrill and antics of the other networks increase as their numbers dwindle, C-SPAN continues to provide the service for which all Americans should be thankful. As Brian Lamb steps down as CEO of C-SPAN, he leaves a legacy that will be compared to the news anchors and figures of days gone by and in the final analysis, viewers will see his greatness while further understanding the baseness and vacuous nature of those who purport to carry on the journalistic tradition.
Beautiful post. I have never watched the Sunday morning show and now feel as if I have sincerely missed out on something truly educational and enlightening.
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