C-SPAN Cameras Reveal House Speaker Paul Gosar, a Republican Senator and a Democratic Sen from the House of Representatives
If you have watched coverage of the House unfolding over the course of the day, you may have noticed that the camera shots are different from the usual wide-pans that saturate C-SPAN.
Usually, the House forbids independent media coverage of proceedings, meaning that networks must rely on a government feed for coverage. Independent coverage is allowed when special events are taking place in the House.
The public will have a rare front row view of the high-stakes negotiations between lawmakers with multiple cameras in the House chamber.
C-SPAN cameras show Republican Paul Gosar speaking on the floor with a Democratic colleague. Gosar was asking Ocasio-Cortez if any Democrats were planning to leave the floor or vote present so McCarthy could have a lower threshold, according to Ocasio-Cortez spokesperson Lauren Hitt. Gosar was told there was no plan to do that by Ocasio-Cortez.
The image of the two people next to each other is striking. The House voted to censure Gosar and remove him from committees in November 2021 after Gosar photoshopped an anime video to social media showing him appearing to kill Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Joe Biden.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/05/media/cspan-cameras-house-speaker/index.html
The Capitol Security Cameras: Investigating the December 21 Insurrection under the Influence of the Republican Right-Half Speaker Kevin McCarthy
There is a glimpse into how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Paul Gosar talk to one another. The director of editorial operations at C-SPAN told me that they could show Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan talking before the next votes. “We are able to show scrums of members migrate across the floor as negotiations go on. You don’t see that during standard coverage.”
O’Connell noted that C-SPAN would like to be able to do this far more often. The organization has petitioned Congress many times over the years in order to have more control over the camera shots it chooses to air.
“I think it is really important for journalists to be behind the cameras rather than the government be behind the cameras,” O’Connell added. We have a government entity during a typical legislative day. I think having journalists behind the camera would be beneficial.
The speaker of theHouse ordered the cameras to show the full empty chamber, setting off a partisan fight that helped elevate Gingrich and humiliated the speaker.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has granted Fox News host Tucker Carlson access to all of the US Capitol security footage from January 6, multiple sources told CNN.
The highly unusual move – a House speaker handing over a massive trove of internal government materials to a friendly media outlet – comes after the California Republican faced significant pressure from his right flank to relitigate the work of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, insurrection.
During his bid for the speakership, McCarthy vowed to hold hearings on the security failures that led to the Capitol getting overrun, and he told the select committee to preserve all of its records for potential future review by the newly empowered GOP majority.
Comments on the December 6, 2016 Capitol Insight into the 2016 January 6 Insurrection: Carlson, J.D. Fox News, and the Fox News Investigation
One of the most prominent proponents of January 6 conspiracy theories is Carlson. He’s devoted a lot of airtime to the false claim that the insurrection was a way to undermine former President Donald Trump. He interviewed a few of the rioters who were charged by the Justice Department.
A Fox News spokesperson told CNN that the Axios report was accurate, but declined further comment. Carlson told Axios, “there was never any legitimate reason for this footage to remain secret” and that the videos will shed light on “what actually happened on January 6.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the chamber’s top Democrat, was not consulted about the release of the security footage, a source familiar told CNN. Another source told CNN that McCarthy didn’t consult with his GOP leadership team before making the decision.
The US Capitol Police video footage was granted access by the January 6th Select Committee because of concerns about security of lawmakers, staff, and the Capitol complex. “Access was limited to members and a small handful of investigators and senior staff, and the public use of any footage was coordinated in advance with Capitol Police.”
Tim Mulvey, a former January 6 committee spokesman, blasted McCarthy’s move in a statement to CNN, saying, “It’s hard to overstate the potential security risks if this material were used irresponsibly” by Carlson or others.
January 6 defendants have access to thousands of hours of unreleased footage from the attack, as well from an online database, but the videos are tightly controlled by a protective order and defendants are not allowed to publicly release the clips.
“Once the capabilities of a U.S. Capitol interior surveillance camera, including its position and whether it pans, tilts or zooms, is disclosed to the public via the release of a single video from that camera, the cat is out of the bag,” Justice Department prosecutors wrote in a July 2021 court filing.