Let C-SPAN show Americans the real Congress

The breakout star of the protracted U.S. House of Representatives speaker election wasn’t Bakersfield Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who ultimately got the job. It also wasn’t the cadre of holdout Republicans nor smirking Democrats. No, the real star was C-SPAN, the broadcaster that for once could show Americans what was actually happening in the Capitol.

C-SPAN airs congressional sessions, other government events and public affairs programming. It is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit broadcaster created by the cable television industry in 1979 and receives no government funding. Cable subscribers will find it typically buried deep in their channel guide. Those who have cut the cord can stream it online or use a mobile app.

Being free from government funding doesn’t free C-SPAN from a government leash, though. The broadcaster relies on official House camera feeds. Those cameras are subject to House rules and the speaker’s decrees. Historically, that has meant that sometimes C-SPAN could only show whoever was speaking from the waist up. Other times, the network could broadcast wide pans across the chamber and the dais.

For a few unobstructed days during the Republican speaker imbroglio, C-SPAN slipped off its leash. Because there was no speaker and no rules, there was no one to tell C-SPAN what it could show, no one to forbid the network from using its own cameras. That made for compelling television.

Republicans probably didn’t want their disagreement displayed on national television, but it was real. It was politics in action. C-SPAN’s viewership jumped during the votes, and other news organizations also carried the broadcast.

Americans had the rare opportunity to see individual lawmakers negotiating, arguing, lunging, smiling, yawning and otherwise engaged in the protracted process of governance. Some people grandstanded and there appeared to be one near fisticuff, but for every Rep. Katie Porter trying to become a meme by holding up a provocative book, there were dozens of genuine human moments.

It should be that way all the time. C-SPAN has requested permission to keep using its own cameras going forward, and it has bipartisan support. Democratic House members want to pass legislation to authorize the cameras, and Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz wants to amend the rules for it.

Whether those proposals advance is up to McCarthy. He can do what Rep. Nancy Pelosi and speakers before her did by forcing C-SPAN to rely on the carefully controlled official camera feeds, or he can take a stand for transparency and the ability of Americans to see their elected officials in action.

This isn’t limited to the House, either. The Senate and Supreme Court also should open up to better live C-SPAN broadcasts. That doesn’t require letting everyone with a camera into the chambers, just the one network that for decades has demonstrated it understands that respectful broadcasts of government are better than sensationalism.

There’s also a lesson in this for lawmakers in Sacramento who aren’t overly fond of cameras. Finding a live broadcast of a state legislative hearing or floor session is needlessly…