samcol

I love watching c-span. In my opinion it's really the only spin free news source. Live coverage of debates. You get to see your representatives for who they really are, not what some blogger says abou them. Too many times these comentor's take a small portion of someone's speech and spin into into something that it's not. It's fascinating to sometimes see these politicians give brilliant speeches in front of an empty house. Also the comentary and questions from the people that call in is really great. They ask real questions.

There realy should be a channel for most government operations so you can see what they are really doing. For instance one thing I would like to see is a c-span type channel that covered every single presidential speech. On other stations you see like a minute long clip of him giving a speech but you rarely see full speeches by him.

The news channels should stick to reporting instead of commentary.

jonjon42

in a perfect world, yes that would be nice, but you know, "if it bleeds, it leads"
mentality is rampant. I've never watched c-span for long periods of time, but sometimes I watch it during debates over certain bills (induce act etc.)

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guy44

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha - er, sorry. I thought you said avid watcher of C-Span.

Oh. You did.

I heard that there once was this guy, living with Elvis and the chupacabra, who was an avid C-Span viewer...

/sarcasm

Yeah, C-Span is pretty close to unbiased, and everyone - including me - should watch it more often. It's just, kinda boring, you know?

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alansmithee

I often watch Washington Journal, occasionally watched Book Notes, and try to catch some of the debates/panels they televise at campuses and conferences. I don't watch much of the congressional hearings unless it's something I really think will be interesting. It makes a great change of pace from other news channels.

trickyy

glad a few of you in here watch. washington journal is probably the best issue driven/discussion show on TV. i also agree with you on the panel discussions at universities, very interesting stuff. recent shows that i've enjoyed included a discussion with jennings, brokaw and rather at harvard (i think) and a lecture by the syrian ambassador to the US. another thing that i liked was right before the election -- they featured talk radio shows from around the country.

as far as the congressional aspect, day-to-day floor debates are a bit boring. but when an important issue comes up (and someone important talks about it), cspan is going to show you more, sooner than you'll get on the white-noise news stations.

so here's my analysis of the raw data, unscientifically sampled: many democrats don't seem to have any creative ideas in response/opposition to bush's own, their goal is to impede anything that resembles an elephant. too bad their newly discovered pseudo-spine is wasted on petty obstruction of judges instead of something important, like a war.

then, perhaps funnier, most republicans are attempting to out-pander one another. frist in particular...he wants to be president soon, and won't let his training in science blur his devotion to what he thinks values voters want to hear.

got kinda sidetracked. point is, it's cool to see this stuff firsthand.

Locobot

I especially love c-span's coverage of the British House of Commons, when they get to question the PM. It's too bad that America doesn't have this function in our democracy... I'm not sure GWB would last 5 minutes. HEAR! HEAR! [gavel bangs]

Sun Tzu

yes, frequently

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Supple Cow

When I interned for a congressman, I worked with the Press Secretary's office very often, and he would have that godforsaken channel on all. day. long.

After a whole summer of it, I found myself back at school with my TV on and tuned to c-span for most of the time I was in my room. But for the fact that I'm currently weening myself off the TV, I would say that I am an avid watcher c-span (though I'm using the terms very loosely). Yes, it's boring. I still think people should watch it if they're going to watch TV at all.

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