Why I Founded C-SPAN: Brian Lamb Tells All (Including His Crush on Brenda Lee)
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- Опубліковано 18 бер 2014
- On March 19, 1979, C-SPAN first aired proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives. American politics and media would never be the same.
Over the next 35 years, C-SPAN would expand its offerings to include coverage of the Senate, a wide variety of interview programs and live events, Book TV, radio broadcasts, and much more.
At the center of the C-SPAN story is Brian Lamb, who not only conceived the network but redefined the long-form television interview with a style that has been called stoic, spartan, laconic-and unbelievably effective in producing fascinating, revealing conversations.
Born in Indiana in 1941, Lamb told Reason that his interest in offering unmediated coverage of official legislative proceedings stemmed in part from his job in the Pentagon's public affairs office during the Vietnam War. "I kept saying to myself," Lamb recalled, "there's something wrong there. This ought to be an open situation, and the more closed it is and the more insular it is, the more both sides can fool the public for their own reasons. And we found ourselves in a major war, 500,000 troops deployed and 58,000 people killed."
Despite the immeasurable public value it provides, C-SPAN has never taken a dime of taxpayer money, always proudly insisting that it was "created by cable" and is funded by pay-television operations at no cost to taxpayers or cable subscribers.
In 2003 Reason named Lamb one of our 35 Heroes of Freedom, writing "The Great Stone Face of C-SPAN has produced more must-see TV than anyone else in the history of the medium. There's no reason to pick a favorite among the likes of Booknotes, Washington Journal, and all the other C-SPAN fare, but his greatest contribution may well be his first: turning a surveillance camera on the den of iniquity known as the U.S. House of Representatives." In 2012, Lamb stepped down as CEO of C-SPAN, though he still appears on the network.
In 2010, Reason TV's Nick Gillespie talked with Lamb about his attempt to get cameras in the Supreme Court (watch our video about that here). We also took the opportunity to have a wide-ranging-and distinctively non-stone-faced-discussion about the network, Lamb's views on politics, and a possible alternate career choice as a drummer for Merle Haggard or Brenda Lee. In celebration of C-SPAN's 35th anniversary, we're happy to release this conversation with Lamb.
About 40 minutes. Produced by Meredith Bragg. Additional camera: Dan Hayes and Joshua Swain.
Go to reason.com/reasontv/2014/03/19... for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason TV's UA-cam channel to receive automatic notification when new material goes live.
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Brian Lamb is one of the greatest Americans to ever live...a National Living Treasure. I love this man.
Brian Lamb is so great. He is the embodiment of CSPAN; a grey exterior but colorful and rich with discoveries beneath the surface.
This is one great American. Big fan of Brian Lamb.
I love Brian Lamb, you are my hero - book tv is the greatest as well as Washington Journal and all C-SPAN programming. Thank you Brian!!!
I entirely enjoyed Brian Lamb's response on that supercilious question concerning Terry Schiavo and "The Wizard of Oz" by stating " Let it be seen by your audience that my lack of response ... represents the way we at C.-S.P.A.N. would answer a question like that." He demonstrated a solemnity and presence of mind that prevented the circumstance from degenerating into an embarrassing faux pas.
Brian Lamb,
A American Treasure!
I recall back in the 90's our area of country finally offered Cable.
I was 14, scanning the channels and came across Mr. Lamb interviewing Newt Gingrich.
It was fascinating, to be right there in the hollowed Chambers of Congress.
C-Spans most induring quality is its UNBIASED!
Every interviewee is treated fairly and spoken to with respect.
In fact, I'm unable to recall one occasion where
Mr. Lamb talked over or interrupted a guest.
History will show C-Span prepared and educated a entire generation for their Civic Duty!
God Bless
Our American Experience "Freedom"!
Cruzer
In
CT
Thanks from Great Britain. C-SPAN is great.
For well over 20 years, Brian and C-Span he founded and directs have been a gift to people of every political and literary persuasion. Big hat tip to the cable industry too.
Awesome interview! Brian Lamb is a man worthy of respect!
Brian, you showed me the code to open the closed society to the people. That's how I started SesameTube in October 2008 to awake Korean people. My motto is a C-SPAN in my country. Thank you so much!
What I love about Brian Lamb is the fact he never took a side or tied to be the “star” - always remained impartial and put the focus on his guests and neve himself.
Super interview. More like this please.
I am a C-SPAN junkie. They have actual conservative media.
Brian's interviews with A. Scott Berg, Edmund Morris and Thomas Sowell are among my favorite of his.
Nick's sense of humor had Brian at a loss lol.
Brian Lamb and his Interviews are just as good, when he gets interviewed. Brian is the Legend of Interviews. His thorough investigation into the subjects of his interviews are outstanding and he always has best prepped questions.
A man of integrity
This is so awesome. Thank you for this video.
Love C-SPAN. Makes me miss cable.
Brian Lamb and cspan taught me how to read a newspaper......and how to "read" my government ! It shines a light on how the sausage gets made but always seeks to include imput from history , current events , new and old media, and viewers and listeners. This interview was great.Thanks for posting it. and thank god for cspan!!!!!
I've heard Justice Scalia say that the justices have talked about the issue of videoing the court proceedings at length. The main reason that they don't want to do it is because the news media will just take snippets of video in order to wind people up. I tend to agree with him.
22:08 "Where's the money coming from?" Nailed it right on the head.
awesome guy
I'm watching C-span right now, and I'm still amazed at this guy. How is he STILL alive?
"c-span sucks but not as much as you do", "Have a nice day, dickhead..."
I still to this day wonder why he read that email out lmao 😭
Bill Steigerwald St Brian Lamb -- the only living one. Here from my interview I did with him in 2004: Q: Why did you start C-SPAN?
A: It's not what most people think it was. My interest in starting C-SPAN (in 1979) was that I thought that three commercial television networks controlling what we saw was unfortunate. I was angry about it, as a matter of fact. I kept saying to myself, "Why are we watching only three television networks? And the same newscast every night? And the same lead story and the same breaks for commercials?" When I first got in it, I said, "We need more information." It was that simple. I didn't feel strongly about covering the House of Representatives. That just turned out to be the vehicle with which we were able to start this place.
Q: At your National Press Club talk the other night you said you thought the American people really sought more "choice and freedom" in their lives. Is there a secret Brian Lamb who is really politically opinionated?
A: Yes. I have strong opinions about openness. I'm a small "d" democrat. I basically said it at that press club speech that I feel very strongly in the First Amendment and that it's absolute and it's the only thing that really keeps us free, because I've watched politicians hoard information and control information, and control our access to information. It's the only chance we have of being different than other places. There are democracies all over the world. Lots of countries have democracies. There are very few that have the strong First Amendment that we have. I guess I feel so strongly that people who don't understand the First Amendment or the value of it would miss it if their side or their ox is being gored.
And my marketing VP, Bill Steigewald, says let's not forget the interview Lamb kindly did with me on CSPAN's Q&A last March, which sold 300 copies of my Gillespie-touted, Reason-boosted literary expose, Dogging Steinbeck.
www.c-span.org/video/?310765-1/qa-bill-steigerwald
Brian Lamb of C-Span like Robert Osborne of Turner Classic Movie is a human treasure.
Americans take for granted cspan and pbs. The uk we get the bbc but we are forced to pay for it through mandatory tax. As Lamb points out that is an atrocity in of itself. I hope he knows that there are at least some people that appreciate what he has done for media.
im from the states, and I appreciate what c-span does.
Nick, dude why would you leave your cell on ? I'm disappointed ... still great video
I think he just fucked up. Maybe he doesn't have an annoying woman calling him a dozen times a day, day in and day out begging for attention, and thus he's not used to getting calls during interviews.
Just a thought. :-)
Well it is his thousanth or so interview. Not nearly as distracting as that time he grew a mustache XD.
Of course he could have edited that out but kept it in so at least he's honest.
its unprofessional, i expect more
Nic Cruickshank
Nobody is perfect and editing interviews is a slippery slope.
[seriously any documentary that does interviews should put the full uncut interview on the DVD special features or something]
Why is there a tiny up arrow on the bottom of the video? wtf?
Lamb's a great guy and way too smart to be a libertarian himself.
Anyway, how many UA-camrs have ever watched C-SPAN?
I'm guessing maybe three.
Many "UA-camrs" prefer seeing public policy discussions to cute cat videos, and most of these people have seen C-SPAN.
Gatekeeper extraordinaire....
No King of the Hill comments?
his crush seems to have been on Brenda Lee, not Peggy Lee...
How DARE you say shit in front of Brian Lamb!!
Read The Bhagavad-Gītā As It Is, only with KRSNA can we have eternal life, Hare KRSNA.
Brian is somewhat annoying at times in demeanor, questioning tack, and left/right/center pigeonholing of US politics, though his endless interviews are a great archival legacy.
Tsnore to me he's pretty much the least annoying person on tv, and what other pigeonhole is there besides left, right, and center?
Super interview. More like this please.