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C-Span Posts Full Archives Online

Posted by kdawson on from the but-no-perl-libraries dept.

An anonymous reader sends word that C-Span has completed its project of making all of its footage available online. "The archives, at C-SpanVideo.org, cover 23 years of history and five presidential administrations and are sure to provide new fodder for pundits and politicians alike. The network will formally announce the completion of the C-Span Video Library on Wednesday. Having free online access to the more than 160,000 hours of C-Span footage is like being able to Google political history using the "I Feel Lucky" button every time,' said Rachel Maddow, the liberal MSNBC host."

9 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Re:first post by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

    Point of Order!

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    rewriting history since 2109
  2. Too bad... by ThermalRunaway · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Half the health care debate wasn't on CSPAN at all... we could go back and see the insanity over and over again

    1. Re:Too bad... by moosesocks · · Score: 5, Informative

      The doors may be closed (actually, they rarely are), but the cameras are still rolling inside.

      Senate committee hearings are streamed live on their respective websites, and are archived shortly thereafter. If you need something that predates the Senate's streaming media operation, the Library of Congress or the National Archives can help you. Because there can be over a dozen hearings going on simultaneously (sometimes while the Senate floor is also in session), most of these do not make it to C-SPAN, although they are indeed available to anybody with the patience to watch them.

      If something seems egregiously absent, send a FOIA request.

      (Disclaimer: I work for the Senate Recording Studio who are responsible for the production of any TV or Radio broadcasts/recordings that take place in the Senate)

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      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
  3. Like most of the national parks. . . by Hero+Zzyzzx · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm glad this exists but will probably never visit it.

  4. Re:If you can find anything by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess you've never watched 10 hours of c-cpan.

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    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  5. Amazing Achievement by HaeMaker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Consider the amount of processing power it took to compress 160,000 hours of video fully indexed and ready for viewing.

    Incredible for a non-profit.

  6. Re:Goody! by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Inouwe chewing out North FTW.

    You've got to watch Ollie North's jaw muscles working. You know he's thinking about jumping over the table and snapping Inouwe's neck like a twig. He's trying to decide whether or not his patron Ronald Reagan would have pulled strings to get him pardoned for the attack or not. Considering the blanket pardons that went down later, I'm guessing that Reagan/Bush would have indeed pardoned North if he'd attacked.

    The amazing thing about that moment in history is that Oliver North and Ronald Reagan actually believed they were doing God's will by selling arms to the guys in Iran who are now our "sworn enemies" and the "Axis of Evil".

    That's ultimately why this C-Span archive project will not interest most Americans, who seem to believe that history started last week, and there were no terror attacks on the US during the Bush Administration(a quote that Dana Perino, Bush Press Secretary has made numerous times). You just watch, by 2012, people will believe that Barack Obama was president on 9/11.

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    You are welcome on my lawn.
  7. Re:Not for Long by value_added · · Score: 5, Insightful

    C-SPAN is a private non-profit and receives no government funding.

    True enough, but that's not really the whole story. I'll quote Wikepedia's summary:

    Uncommonly for a television network, C-SPAN is operated as a non-profit organization by the National Cable Satellite Corporation, whose board of directors consists primarily of representatives of the largest cable companies. C-SPAN accepts no advertising; instead, it receives nearly all its funding from subscriber fees charged to cable and DBS operators. Contrary to popular perception, C-SPAN receives no funding from government sources.

    Put crudely, everyone with a cable-TV feed is paying for it. But wait, there's more ..

    It receives no funding from any government source, has no contract with the government, and does not sell sponsorships or advertising. It strives for neutrality and a lack of bias in its public affairs programming.

    I doubt anyone would quibble with the above. I sleep comfortably knowing that consumers of (mostly) mindless entertainment along with viewers of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News all help pay for what's routinely offered on C-SPAN. That irony, of course, is layered with another irony, that while most of those groups repeatedly make claims of media bias, few would consider watching C-SPAN. Boring? You betcha. Most of life's issues are mind-numbingly dull in their complexity, especially when presented unedited and unfiltered.

  8. Re:Goody! by commodoresloat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The amazing thing about that moment in history is that Oliver North and Ronald Reagan actually believed they were doing God's will by selling arms to the guys in Iran who are now our "sworn enemies" and the "Axis of Evil".

    Now? The thing that was so scandalous was they were our sworn enemies even then! At least with the Afghan "freedom fighters" that Reagan also armed, we can say that he didn't know then that they would become our great enemy. But with Iran the Reaganites knew exactly who they were dealing with.