Knock Knock! Who’s There? It’s C-SPAN, Mr. President.
Mike Brownfield /
President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are planning plenty of health care action in closed-door meetings at the White House today, but there are no lights or cameras.
Now, C-SPAN is calling for the latter.
In a letter to congressional leadership dated December 30, 2009, C-SPAN wrote:
As your respective chambers work to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate health care bills, C-SPAN requests that you open all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings, to electronic media coverage.
C-SPAN noted that it is willing to commit resources to cover all negotiations and that, to date, it has televised hundreds of hours of committee hearings for public access. More importantly, the network called on the President and congressional leadership to live up to their commitment to transparency:
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