C-SPAN Is Once Again Asking the House to Relax Filming Rules So It Can Document Its Dysfunction

If you’d like to see what’s happening on any given day in the House of Representatives, your only option is to physically go there and sit in the gallery. There are any number of ways to livestream the proceedings, yet House rules prohibit the cameras—which are run by the House Recording Studio, comprised of government employees—from recording anything other than the person speaking at the podium.

But as last week’s speaker fight made clear, the least important thing going on at the House at any given time is the person speaking at the podium. We know this because, due to an unusual confluence of circumstances, C-SPAN was permitted to bring its own cameras inside the chambers and record whatever it liked, including but not limited to reaction shots and side conversations. Thanks in large part to this abnormal permissiveness, C-SPAN became a compelling watch. Its livestreams on Youtube garnered millions of views, compared to say the 39,000 live views a Nancy Pelosi house speech had.

For decades, C-SPAN has formally asked the Speaker for exactly this kind of thing, permission to have cameras permanently installed in the House chambers so it could provide a range of angles and reactions. Now that we have actually experienced this during a politically contentious event, C-SPAN is asking once again.

In a letter sent on January 10, Susan Swain, co-CEO of C-SPAN, asked Speaker McCarthy to “Allow C-SPAN to cover House floor proceedings on behalf of our network and all Congressionally-accredited news organizations…we request to install a few additional cameras in the House chamber. When mixed with the existing House production, shots from our cameras would allow us to create a second, journalistic product, just as we did last week. Audio would continue to be provided by the House Recording Studio.” Swain acknowledged this is not the first time C-SPAN has made this request, but “The public, press, and Member reaction to C-SPAN’s coverage—along with the ‘transparency’ themes in your new rules package—have encouraged us to resubmit a request we have made to your predecessors without success.”

It is unclear how McCarthy will respond given the additional cameras allowed for a week’s documentation of his own ritualistic humiliation at the hands of a handful of party rebels and to the delight of millions. The Speaker’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.