C-SPAN BECOMES CNN

by G. Murphy Donovan

“Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought.” – George Orwell

(What follows here is the text of a letter sent to the C-Span Politburo in the wake of the Steve Scully affair. Scully, is a Biden foot soldier and erstwhile network moderator of the second 2020 Trump/Biden presidential debate. Scully was caught seeking pre-debate advice from a never-Trump operative prior to the network debate that was cancelled anyway by Covid-19 fears. Scully lied to the American people and C-span brass about his per-debate e-mails and was subsequently “suspended indefinitely” which probably means we haven’t seen the last of Scully.)

To: Brian Lamb

       Susan Swain

       Robert Kennedy

I address this letter to the three of you because it appears the C-Span is run by some kind of anti-Trump management collective these days.

My first question is generic. When did C-Span become CNN?

More specifically, how does a partisan shill like Steve Scully get to be your front man in a presidential debate? How is he a “moderator” of any sort? Scully is cut from the same political cloth as Jeffery Toobin, except Scully has yet to be immortalized on a Zoom conference call.

You can’t possibly believe that his Biden bias is a one-off. Was Scully really the best impartial arbiter that you and the Presidential Debate Commission could find?

Commercial networks and urban fish wraps have always been partisan.

Many independents, myself included, relied on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and C-Span to provide verbatim, if not objective, reporting without spin. Alas, PBS has become another BBC where hard left politics dominate the Newshour, Amanpour, Washington Week, and The firing Line 

The last vestiges of broadcast objectivity are cut adrift in America at PBS – and now C-Span.

Where do reasonable folks go to find impartial reporting these days? Your non-profit Kevlar is predicated on a public interest, balanced and fair reporting. Your tax-exempt status also is predicated on providing a public “service.”

Democrat Party spin is not service.

With Scully, like CNN, you have forfeited your integrity and reputation to a political pimp. And you now tell us that he is suspended! What does that mean? Does it mean Scully comes back dressed in another frock on another day.

Let me review your public mandate, your public promise, because apparently you don’t read or believe your own boiler plate:

“To provide elected and appointed officials and others who would influence public policy a direct conduit to the audience without filtering or otherwise distorting their points of view…. all without editing, commentary or analysis and with a balanced presentation of points of view.”

How do political hacks like Scully fill that bill?

The consequences of your tepid reaction to the Scully skullduggery are threefold: you validate the fake news shibboleth, you exacerbate the national divide, and you aggravate the Orwellian drift of American broadcast and print media.

In short, you undermine your status as a “charity” or “public service.”  

What you need, lady and gentlemen, is a swift kick in your cooperate wallet. When you take sides, C-Span; you don’t just forfeit taxpayer trust, you put your tax-exempt fig leaf in jeopardy.

Your pronounced objectivity deficit, should be the objective evidence for revoking your tax exempt burka.

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The author writes about the politics of national security.