Why I Founded C-SPAN: Brian Lamb Tells All (Including His Crush on Brenda Lee)

Original release date was March 19, 2014 and original writeup is
below.

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.

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