C-SPAN’s Access Is Once Again Limited in Kevin McCarthy’s House. Will That Change?

In the wee hours of January 7, Representative Kevin McCarthy was finally elected Speaker of the House after 15 ballots, capping off five days of congressional drama that had America glued to C-SPAN. It was after ballot number 14 that all hell broke loose on the House floor, as McCarthy confronted Representative Matt Gaetz, which resulted in finger-pointing, heated words, and one member, Mike Rogers, being physically restrained. Reflecting on that tense moment, Gaetz, who was chief among the hard-right flank that tortured McCarthy on his path to the speakership, told me, “Hey, I’m making C-SPAN great again.” 

Beyond the near-brawl, the public got rare glimpses of members of Congress, from Marjorie Taylor Greene cracking up George Santos to Representative Katie Porter flipping through The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. (Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, read a New Yorker article about McCarthy.) Lawmakers’ kids slumped in their seats as the proceedings dragged on, while a member snuck a hit off his vape. Progressive Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez chatted with far-right Representative Paul Gosar, who once tweeted an animated video of him chopping off her head. It wasn’t only C-SPAN capturing more candid moments during the proceedings, but the network reaped the most praise. Jon Stewart called it “the best season of cspan…ever,” as media outlets raved. “C-SPAN Unleashes Its Inner Scorsese,” read a New Yorker headline, with the Wall Street Journal declaring, “The House Speaker Drama Has One Winner: C-SPAN.”

But the nonprofit cable network’s unfettered access ended when McCarthy took the gavel, as cameras inside the chamber are traditionally controlled by the party in power, leaving C-SPAN with mostly fixed shots of the dais and the podium. Last month, there seemed to be real momentum for more independent media access to the chamber, with calls coming from both sides of the aisle. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise expressed openness to the idea of allowing people “to see more about the way the government works.” Then, C-SPAN co-CEO Susan Swain, citing the “public, press, and Member reaction to C-SPAN’s coverage,” wrote a letter to McCarthy asking “to install a few additional cameras in the House chamber” that, when combined with the existing House production, “would allow us to create a second, journalistic product, just as we did last week.”

Now, on the eve of the State of the Union (another occasion where the network gets free rein in the chamber), C-SPAN is still waiting on an answer from McCarthy. “We have heard absolutely nothing,” Ben O’Connell, the network’s director of editorial operations, told me. That’s not entirely unusual—similar letters from C-SPAN have gone unanswered in the past, O’Connell noted—but this request feels different, in part because lawmakers are “actively working to allow independent media cameras into the chamber,” said O’Connell. “It’s unusual enough to have them voicing support for it, but to actually do something to push it forward is potentially unheard of. It’s unheard of by me, in any case.” (McCarthy’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.)

Gaetz, one of the more media-friendly members of Congress, introduced an amendment to the House rules to allow C-SPAN to broadcast and record the floor proceedings of the House with at least four of its cameras. “I think that more dynamic camera angles would bring the American people into the congressional decision-making process in a healthy way,” Gaetz said in an interview. 

Democratic representative Mark Pocan has also introduced a measure seeking continued media access to the entire House chamber. “We wound up actually having a lot of people watching the sausage being made during that first week,” Pocan told me. “I heard from a lot of people in the district, and that’s a good thing. The federal government is kind of a byzantine process to many people, and because of it I think sometimes people aren’t as engaged.” Unlike Gaetz’s proposal, which relates specifically to C-SPAN, Pocan’s resolution would open up all cameras in the House. 

Since C-SPAN sent their letter, Gaetz said he’s had one conversation with McCarthy about the issue, during which the speaker “indicated open-mindedness” but “was still taking it under advisement,” according to Gaetz, who added, “I hope he’s able to allow some more dynamic perspective. I mean, the memes alone justify it.”