Julio Rosas at Townhall reports that C-SPAN is showing a pro-Democrat bias. They failed to cover a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the border crisis February 23 in Yuma, Arizona.
Sources on Capitol Hill tell Townhall C-SPAN Congressional Editor Robb Harleston was initially receptive to the idea when they told him about the hearing earlier this month, calling the idea "great." The next day, Harleston flatly declined to have C-SPAN cover the hearing because, "We're concerned about the absence of [Democrat] members of the hearing."
GOP staff tried to impress upon Harleston the event was an official hearing being put on by the Judiciary Committee on an issue they have jurisdiction over. Harleston continued to cite how Democrats choosing to not attend the hearing meant C-SPAN would not broadcast it, then lastly mentioning they were dealing with a manpower shortage.
By that standard, C-SPAN should have decided not to cover any of the House January 6 Committee hearings. The Republicans were denied their right to select their own members. They would argue that the Pelosi-picked Republicans made it bipartisan, but anyone watching it knew it was unanimous in its political mission. It was not a debate and there was no balance.
Those hearings -- which often was more of a TV show than actual live testimony -- were held inside the Capitol. Rosas added that in 2019, C-SPAN broadcast a field hearing in Los Angeles that Rep. Maxine Waters put on when she ran the House Financial Services Committee....and no Republicans were present. Only four Democrats were at the Los Angeles hearing, as opposed to 14 Republicans who were present for the Yuma hearing.
House Democrats claimed the reason they were not going to the field hearing was because they were not consulted on it. The Republicans said they'd been in contact with Democrats about the Arizona field hearing for weeks and tweeted out video of Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) publicly inviting Democrats to Yuma during the Committee's first hearing about the border crisis.
In fact, here's @Jim_Jordan inviting them to join during our first hearing! pic.twitter.com/rjLGD8mzCK
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) February 16, 2023
This was clearly a failure by C-SPAN to offer a thorough and balanced presentation of congressional business. One can guess they were worried about being slammed by the liberal media.
"C-SPAN bases our daily editorial decisions on a variety of factors, such as interest for a national audience, the witnesses involved, and balance of perspectives over time. This leaves room for coverage of events at which only one party is represented, but the reality of limited resources is that we can't get them all. We have covered many—and will continue to cover many—hearings and other events on immigration, the border, and the fentanyl crisis as our resources allow," Ben O'Connell, C-SPAN's director of editorial operations, said to Townhall in a statement.
Maybe the House Republicans need to call C-SPAN to a hearing to defend its biased decision-making....and see if C-SPAN will cover that.
