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 Recent commentary from National Journal: Social Studies: In Geneva, the U.N.'s Successor May Be Testing Its Wings (March 24, 2004) Since 1996, a handful of foreign-policy wonks have been kicking around the idea of a "democracy caucus" at the U.N. Now it looks as if it might actually happen. By Jonathan Rauch. Political Pulse: Loophole Advocacy (March 24, 2004) It looks as if many Democrats have changed their minds about wanting to get soft money out of politics. By William Schneider. Legal Affairs: How Spain Could Bring Bush and Kerry Together (March 24, 2004) What happened in Spain is a disaster for the United States—so much so that George W. Bush and John Kerry need to issue a national-unity declaration. By Stuart Taylor Jr. Legal Affairs: Bush Has The Wrong Remedy to Court-Imposed Gay Marriage (March 16, 2004) There are ways to get the courts out of the gay-marriage business without tying the hands of future voting majorities who may see gay marriage as good for us all. By Stuart Taylor Jr. Media: Be Not Wicked (March 16, 2004) Wickedness used to be a core value of American journalism and great newspapers. But not any more. By William Powers. Political Pulse: The Search for a Winning Combo (March 16, 2004) A running mate can help in three ways: geography, demography, and message. By William Schneider. Wealth of Nations: The Jobless Recovery: A Cause for Concern, Not Alarm (March 16, 2004) It's fair to ask whether the Bush administration has done as much as it could to cushion workers from the economy's growing pains. And the answer is no. By Clive Crook. More from National Journal. |
Media 
The Wallflower Knows
C-SPAN has downsized Washington, revealing it to be a city of mere people, not giants. by William Powers ..... Candidate Kerry was on C-SPAN a few days ago, flanked by firefighters, delivering a stump speech so masterful, I finally understood what happened in all those primary states and why the White House is so worried. What took me so long? Where had this John Kerry been hiding? I'd been following the campaign in all the usual outlets: the big newspapers and the networks, plus CNN, MSNBC, Fox, a few magazines, the occasional radio story. Yet until this moment, Kerry's success was a complete mystery to me. As framed by the media in their standard fashion—the carefully snipped quotes, the brief video clips, the stagy voice-overs imposing the day's tacitly agreed-upon story line—the Kerry campaign had always struck me as borderline absurd. He was the dour undertaker, the hopeless flip-flopper with the El Greco features, running around the country as if he had a prayer of getting elected. Right. I'd forgotten to check C-SPAN. It's a stupid mistake, but a common one. In a crowded media culture, we notice those who work hardest to be noticed. The facile smoothies; the great haircuts on the high-tech sets; the spotlight journalists who believe deep down that a story isn't a story unless it's ultimately about them. It's easy not to notice C-SPAN, because it doesn't call attention to itself. It's the national wallflower, always off to the side doing the shy voyeur thing, watching the cool kids out on the dance floor. But voyeurs never miss a trick, and one of the beauties of C-SPAN is the way that it picks up the stuff other media are too self-involved to notice. C-SPAN turns 25 this week, and it's celebrating in classic C-SPAN style, dropping obscure hints and airing obliquely congratulatory clips. In one I saw this week, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., who was in Congress when C-SPAN first aired, sourly recalls why he thought this Congress-on-camera idea was bad for the country—and in some ways still is. Who but C-SPAN would intentionally rain on its own parade and appear to enjoy the abuse? In the ocean of narcissism, C-SPAN is an island of self-abnegation. When you go there from other media, it's weird at first. You have to slow down and get your bearings, remember how to be a natural, spontaneous person, how to watch carefully and think for yourself. One of the great misconceptions about C-SPAN is that it's dull. True, the congressional floor coverage tends toward the tedious, and those think-tank panels can be a living death. But then it hits you: This is what life is really like in Washington. People drone on that way every day. And other people listen and nurse their ice waters and go back to their squirrel nests and churn out another policy memo. Years later, they might influence a line or two of some gigantic piece of legislation, or claw their way to become assistant secretary of this or that. Maybe they'll rate a nice obit in the hometown paper; maybe not. There's a tremendous pathos to C-SPAN, and this ultimately makes it more interesting than the hyped-up product we call news, which often has a cold, counterfeit quality. The truly revolutionary thing about C-SPAN was not the televising of Congress. It was the way it downsized Washington, revealed it not as the city of giants it always pretended to be, but of mere people who gather endlessly in these drab rooms and clamber for attention, sway, turf, a quote in the paper, some little change they can call their own. Everyone is on C-SPAN, from the humblest whispering aide to the most imperious pundit. And the most-riveting action often is not at the center of the picture, where the daily headlines get written, but off to the sides. Last week, C-SPAN broadcast the launch of the Godless Americans Political Action Committee, a group representing "the secular, the unchurched, the people who profess no faith in any religion," as Ellen Johnson, GAMPAC's executive director, said from the National Press Club. There are about 30 million godless Americans, she said, and they just want what the Christian Coalition has always sought, "a seat at the table." It was a golden, only-on-C-SPAN moment. I watched Kerry's firefighter speech straight to the end. When he was done, C-SPAN didn't cut to some other, hotter event. It patiently followed the candidate as he snaked back through the room, pumping hands, mugging with admirers. It had been a strong performance, and you could tell from Kerry's body language that he knew it. He had an ineffable charisma, the radiant optimism of the riding-high. It's the sort of thing conventional news coverage often misses, because it doesn't translate into headlines, or feels biased. It's also the sort of thing that can win elections. A few weeks ago, C-SPAN sent out to journalists a tape of some of its greatest hits over the years. For me, the most striking was a clip of C-SPAN chief Brian Lamb interviewing Andrea Mitchell, a fine journalist who has achieved the kind of stardom that seems anathema to C-SPAN. Lamb takes a call from a viewer who launches into a bitter attack on all journalists and news outlets, including Mitchell's own NBC. "You are nothing but a group of cheerleaders" for the administration, the caller says, as Mitchell's smile slowly wilts. "I get up early in the morning," the woman says, "and I listen to C-SPAN, because I think the listeners know more and are questioning, are doing your journalist colleagues' jobs." Mitchell begins to answer, but the tape cuts her off. For C-SPAN, it was an uncharacteristic moment of editing, and I'm not sure it was intentional. But it was eloquent.
What do you think? Discuss this article in the Politics & Society conference of Post & Riposte. More from National Journal. More on politics and society in Atlantic Unbound and The Atlantic Monthly. William Powers is media columnist for National Journal. This column appears every week in National Journal, a weekly magazine covering politics and government published in Washington, D.C. For information on National Journal Group publications, see NationalJournal.com. Copyright © 2003 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved. |
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