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Mark Trahant: C-SPAN just as important today
Monday, March 28, 2005
"If the politics of division has become cliché, it's because we have forgotten that the media can also bring us together. Beyond the strident rhetoric of blogs, cable TV and talk radio is C-SPAN.
C-SPAN does two important things for our democracy. First, it's the journalism of direct sources. It covers meetings, government announcements and the Congress unfiltered, letting people in on the once-secret process, seeing events unfold without the compression required to fit the story into the structure of a news program. The second thing C-SPAN does is to transmit a respect for differences across political ideology; its call-in programs are scrupulously fair. There's one line for conservative callers, a number for independents and still another for liberals. Ideas are explored through a cue, line by line, with fairness as the shared value."
Get the Story:
Mark Trahant: C-SPAN: Journalism of direct sources
(The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 3/27)
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