Blogs and Stories
Washington's Longest-Running Reality Show
One of the major misconceptions about C-SPAN is that it is somehow government funded. C-SPAN reports that it has received $872 million from fees paid by cable and satellite companies since its founding, and zero from federal funds. The pennies we pay to receive C-SPAN are a fraction of the cost per subscriber for ESPN, Fox News, and the NBC channels, which also have substantial advertising revenue and therefore are doing fine, even in these parlous times.
Do not be misled. The C-SPAN journey has not been as smooth as this summary may sound. At various times, cable providers moved to bump C-SPAN in favor of more lucrative channels. Notwithstanding that it televises a broad swath of official and government activity, C-SPAN has no regulatory right to stay on the air. What has kept it going all these years is the support of audiences who, by definition, include many politically aware and outspoken Americans, across the full ideological spectrum. What I find most inspiring about C-SPAN is that it succeeds outside what are thought of as conventional measures of celebrity, notoriety, and controversy. C-SPAN obviously isn’t for everybody, but then what of real value ever is?
Peter Osnos is a senior fellow for media at The Century Foundation. Osnos is the founder and editor at large of PublicAffairs Books. He is vice chairman of the Columbia Journalism Review, a former publisher at Random House, and was a correspondent and editor at the Washington Post.
10 Power Food Combos
Divya Gugnani is the CEO and founder of BehindtheBurner.com, an emerging culinary media brand that creates expert-based content about food, wine, mixology, and nutrition.
How Barack Beat Bibi
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is associate professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. His new book, The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris, will be published by HarperCollins in June. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
Why China Eclipsed Russia
Peter Osnos is a senior fellow for media at The Century Foundation. Osnos is the founder and editor at large of PublicAffairs Books. He is vice chairman of the Columbia Journalism Review, a former publisher at Random House, and was a correspondent and editor at the Washington Post.
A Censorship Test for China
Peter Osnos is a senior fellow for media at The Century Foundation. Osnos is the founder and editor at large of PublicAffairs Books. He is vice chairman of the Columbia Journalism Review, a former publisher at Random House, and was a correspondent and editor at the Washington Post.
The Heroes Who Can Save Journalism
Peter Osnos is a senior fellow for media at The Century Foundation. Osnos is the founder and editor at large of PublicAffairs Books. He is vice chairman of the Columbia Journalism Review, a former publisher at Random House, and was a correspondent and editor at the Washington Post.
dukesup
Brian Lamb is one of the greatest men in American culture, no matter how honestly modest he is. Alone of everyone else, he has spent thirty years disproving the idea that Americans have no patience for anything beyond commercial television units of twelve minutes followed by a fast cut advertisement or two. That is not minor proof and was shown when so many downloaded all forty minutes of Obama's speech in Philadelphia at a suspenseful moment in the contest. There are not many whom we can praise in our mass media but Brian Lamb is one and Peter Osnos did a very good job. It was thick with information and easy to read at a quick pace, a rare but very good version of what Lamb continues to oppose so impressively.
fergdoug
Hart Research poll?!? Doesn't Nielsen regularly measure cume audiences more reliably? I'd like to learn the weekly cume audience figure from a credible source.
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