C-Span CEO Challenges Congress To Televise Health Care Talks

ABC's Jake Tapper reports that "C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb last week wrote to Congressional leaders asking that they 'open all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings, to electronic media coverage' as the House and Senate work to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate health care reform bills."

"The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of these sessions LIVE and in their entirety," Lamb wrote. "We will also, as we willingly do each day, provide C-SPAN’s multi-camera coverage to any interested member of the Capitol Hill broadcast pool."

Lamb reminded the leaders that "President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation’s editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation’s health care system. Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between the Chambers, we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American."

Senator Obama said promised on the campaign trail that "we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so the people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who is making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies." Another promise he has no doubt failed to fulfill. Tweet