The Corsair
C-SPAN has been the most culturally relevant and — dare I say it? — compelling broadcast network thus far in 2023.
C-SPAN is the New HBO Max
This is a good moment for the 43-year old, non-profit network founded by the saintly Brian Lamb. Both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post are rediscovering C-SPAN’s cool factor, even though the network is middle aged, has a bad back, elevated cholesterol and a trick knee. CNN, something of a competitor, acknowledges that C-SPAN is indeed having a moment. “For the first time ever, independent media cameras are capturing a contentious, unscripted political fight on the House floor,” writes Aaron Gordon for VICE.
From AOC jaw-jawing with Paul Gosar, the man who tweeted an anime video of her murder, to the tongues of flame emanating from the Congressional dumpster fire of a Speakership battle, C-SPAN has been the most culturally relevant and — dare I say it? — compelling broadcast network thus far in 2023. Where else can one follow the epic, ongoing frenemy drama between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, the original Republican Mean Girls (“She Knows What She Did,” will be streamed on C-SPAN3 next season ). Blame it on the absence of new programs as well the slow post-holiday lull, but the House of Representatives is the hottest ticket in entertainment. And while, yes, of course, 2023 is barely a week old, there are small signals that this is not just a diminishing trend. As Sarah Krouse notes in today’s WSJ (subscription required):
The channel was watched by some 379,000 households on Tuesday, the first day of the new Congress, a 161% increase over the opening day of the prior Congress in 2021, according to an estimate from Samba TV, a firm that tracks what people are watching on smart TVs. Viewership remained elevated the next day.
Further, the Speakership battle is not yet over, which means more political drama and more ratings in the coming days and possibly weeks. Matt Gaetz, wherever one falls on the question of the punchability of his face, has become a legitimate reality TV star as a result of the Speakership battle. So has Boebert, with her own feral, malevolent brand of “mousechief.” Small mindsets often make for the best reality villains. And really, what, ultimately is more Reality TV than C-SPAN? The cameras now turn their critical gaze upon the Ruling Class. And every reality TV show needs a villain, needs a “Gaetz.” So here we are.
And cinephiles in particular are loving the wildly varying camera angles.
My favorite C-SPAN take this week comes from Karen Heller of the WashPost, who perfectly captures the geekish delight of politics nerds everywhere upon finding that one of our favorite secrets is now being embraced by the larger public:
Zooms and tracking shots! Close-ups and wide shots! Lookie, it’s the House voting board lit up like a holiday tableau! Up there, actual reporters in the balcony press gallery!
… It was the people’s House on full display for the people. Jon Stewart tweeted Wednesday, “This is the best season of cspan…ever.” He was not wrong. Even after viewers learned early in the process that McCarthy had not secured the votes to become speaker in vote after vote after vote after vote — we knew because our new favorite channel kindly informed us — it was nigh impossible not to keep watching.
Comedian Patton Oswalt tweeted Wednesday, “Watching CSPAN right now is basically Shudder with gavels.” He was not wrong, either. It was raucous, unscripted and surprising yet spectacularly inert and predictable all at the same time.
I feel truly, truly seen.
C-SPAN, at present, is a far more psychologically engrossing than the basic reality pabulum like Sister Wives (which, incidentally, has run its course). It is more ethnically diverse, less overly theatrical (think: Giudice overturning a table) yet wholly unpredictable. I mean, who even had Maxine Waters calling out Rep-elect Matt Rosendale on the House floor on their Speakership BINGO card? I mean, fer realsies?
Finally, if anything comes out of the Speakership battle — other than a further tarnishing of the GOP political brand — it will be that the debt ceiling battle will probably prove to be a high-drama repeat, with Tea Party/Freedom Caucus holdouts once again holding the legislative branch hostage to their brand of Chaos Libertarian performance art. “The ongoing civil war among House Republicans as they fail to elect a speaker of the House is an ominous portent of how the debt-ceiling fight will go this summer,” Tobin Marcus, senior U.S. policy and politics strategist at Evercore ISI, said in a note yesterday.
And we haven’t even resolved the Speakership as of yet …
Why the Godfather of Human Rights Is Not Welcome at Harvard (Michael Massing/The Nation)
The Constitutional case for Disarming the debt Ceiling. (Thomas Geoghegan/TNR)
The NME 100. (NME)
Al Roker returns to TV after medical scare. (THR)
“On Wednesday, The Guardian quoted a few sections from the book where Harry alleges that Prince William physically assaulted him during a 2019 argument over the younger prince’s wife, Meghan Markle. It’s been clear since Harry and Meghan’s Netflix docuseries dropped last month that the couple has the new Prince of Wales squarely in their sights, but the book looks to be an even greater escalation, bringing William’s wife, Kate Middleton, into the ring as well.” (VF)
“‘M3GAN’ is looking to carve up $17 million to $20 million in its opening weekend, which would be a killer result since it cost only $12 million to produce.” (Variety)