Three Cheers for Stodgy old C-Span
It's been a long while since I ventured a post at TPM Cafe. I suspect it was having to admit I didn't understand the new format for posting. I've swallowed my pride and hope to have something moderatly useful to say from time to time.
I wake up to NPR. Sometimes, like this morning, I think of it as the best of poor choices. Why I should have to listen to Newt Gingrich and Norman Ornstein seriatum with Cokie Roberts following closely thereafter is beyond me. But I've gotten used to a conservative bias on the station that lets its reporters moonlight on Fox and CNN, and maybe I need an adrenaline rush to carry me over to my first cup of coffee.
What got my goat this morning was NPR's self promotion for its coverage of tomorrow's Inauguration activities. I wasnt' awake enough to do more than provide a very rough paraphrase. The sales point was "need pictures? turn on the television, turn the sound down, and listen to NPR."
Sorry, that won't wash. I'm going back to my most reliable standby, Good old Stodgy C-Span. C-Span reminds me of some of the educational films I was shown in high school...produced by Encyclopedia Britanica, dreadfully serious, black and white, and trustworthy. I watched the conventions on C-span? Was I amused? Not particularly. Did it get the story unembellished, and uninfected by the village pundits trying to tell me what to think about what I saw and heard with my own eyes and ears? Yes. Rather than sit back and be spoon-fed pap, I had to trust my own Brain. Kant would have been proud of my choice.
So my computer is going to be tuned to C-span's Inauguration Hub. I'm listening to it now..a call-in segment where the host actually lets the callers talk--and doesn't tell the other listeners to think about what the callers have do say. I can decide which are savants and which are jerks all by my self.
So thank you, C-Span, for treating me as an adult. I'm expecting some of the cafe habitues will be listening as I will. (I don't know if I'll be ready to start at 6. a.m--Maybe I can crank myself up--we'll see.
I wake up to NPR. Sometimes, like this morning, I think of it as the best of poor choices. Why I should have to listen to Newt Gingrich and Norman Ornstein seriatum with Cokie Roberts following closely thereafter is beyond me. But I've gotten used to a conservative bias on the station that lets its reporters moonlight on Fox and CNN, and maybe I need an adrenaline rush to carry me over to my first cup of coffee.
What got my goat this morning was NPR's self promotion for its coverage of tomorrow's Inauguration activities. I wasnt' awake enough to do more than provide a very rough paraphrase. The sales point was "need pictures? turn on the television, turn the sound down, and listen to NPR."
Sorry, that won't wash. I'm going back to my most reliable standby, Good old Stodgy C-Span. C-Span reminds me of some of the educational films I was shown in high school...produced by Encyclopedia Britanica, dreadfully serious, black and white, and trustworthy. I watched the conventions on C-span? Was I amused? Not particularly. Did it get the story unembellished, and uninfected by the village pundits trying to tell me what to think about what I saw and heard with my own eyes and ears? Yes. Rather than sit back and be spoon-fed pap, I had to trust my own Brain. Kant would have been proud of my choice.
So my computer is going to be tuned to C-span's Inauguration Hub. I'm listening to it now..a call-in segment where the host actually lets the callers talk--and doesn't tell the other listeners to think about what the callers have do say. I can decide which are savants and which are jerks all by my self.
So thank you, C-Span, for treating me as an adult. I'm expecting some of the cafe habitues will be listening as I will. (I don't know if I'll be ready to start at 6. a.m--Maybe I can crank myself up--we'll see.
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Great Post! Here is the correct CSPAN Inauguration Hub link, though. :)
http://www.c-span.org/politics/c-span-inauguration-hub.aspx
January 19, 2009 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thankee very much. I'm having trouble with firefox 3.0something. The address line is disconnected from the tab content.
Memo to self, go back to using Explorer for this task (sob).
January 19, 2009 11:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
oops, my mistake, you mean the TPM blog editor.
January 19, 2009 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
C-SPAN is my favorite. I have had the opportunity to witness real history. Congressional votes. Committee hearings.
No commercials. And only a hint of commentary.
I enjoy the book reviews, interviews. It is kind of hard to listen to wingnuts interspersed with wise and thoughtful viewers on the call-in segments.
There is something really American about C-SPAN.
Good post. Good reminder.
January 19, 2009 10:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Good to see you, amike! And thanks for expressing my own feelings about C-SPAN so well. Actually I call myself a "C-SPAN junkie."
BTW, your post looks just fine.
The Cafe is much improved. And much fun.
January 19, 2009 10:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
CSPAN junkies call themselves SPANners. Just saying. I used to know a few hundred on their old community boards.
They got a little contentious.
January 19, 2009 11:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
Welcome back Mike. Excellent post and an even better recommendation. Some of us have to work but I'll get a report from daughter # 1, who has a ticket to be an eyewitness at the event. Of course, she'd probably get a better view watching C-Span. :)
January 19, 2009 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
amike, I'm not sure what you mean, but talk to me, and we'll get it worked out. I do not notice any trouble viewing the address with FireFox. Have you upgraded to the newest Adobe Flash Player? While there, muight as well make sure you've got the newest Shockwave too.
January 19, 2009 1:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have to make sure NoScript is set properly for the site too. (Allow it...)
January 19, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it is just a matter of him inadvertently using the same url in the a href for both the Kant quote and the cspan hub. That is what it looks like from the page source anyway.
So it isn't a firefox prob. He just accidentally used the same address for both links in this post.
January 19, 2009 2:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sort of.
I have no problems with the TPM Blog editor at all. Here's what was trying to say.
There is something out of whack with my installation of Firefox. For some reason when I have multiple tabs open the tab I'm on doesn't always get reflected in the address line. And when I'm having this trouble I also can't use the right click function to choose to open a new window.
This has been the case for a week or more, since I added some new plug-ins, and now matter what I do, including reinstalling firefox, I can't make this bug go away. So right now while I'm typing here, the address line in my browsers reads http://cspan.org.
I used the add url function on the original post the way I usually do, I copied and pasted the address line, but without looking as carefully as I should have. Though I was on the cspan inauguration house window, the url was still set to Modern History Sourcebook.
If anyone can tell me how to get the tabs and the address line on Firefox coordinated again, I'll be in his or her debt. Just let me know where to send the donuts.
January 19, 2009 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, your firefox is out of whack. Sorry for assuming a mistake. :) I have no clue how to fix your firefox problem. You might want to try just opening a new window for each web page(which is what I usually do) and see if that is a good work around until someone brighter can figure our your problem. Good Luck.
January 19, 2009 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Was it a plug-in or an add-on, and do you know which one it was? Also, do you use remember passwords, or remember forms in the browser?
You probably need to do a clean re-install, which means deleting folders you normally do not see.
Let me know, and I'll try to help.
January 19, 2009 6:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
amike,
message me if you want
pdsa
at
impietease
dot
com
January 19, 2009 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
amike, thank you! i don't think we quite realize what a national treasure is C-SPAN or how much is owed to Brian Lamb who has shephered the endeavor with such non-partisan integrity. So, Brian, if you are reading this, thank you!
January 19, 2009 8:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
The only thing I'm looking forward to about the digital changeover is that I'll get C-SPAN2 back again on Comcast. C-SPAN2 reportedly went digital awhile ago, so my cheap plan couldn't help me. I have missed it so!
I've blocked most of the channels cable provides me, because it's seldom (if ever) that I want to see anything on them, and those blocked include all of the cable news networks. C-SPAN, however, is there among my selected, and if I'm simply surfing for something to watch, odds are I'll stop on and stay on C-SPAN.
Remember what the last debates were like, amike? Split screen, both candidates on all the time, and absolutely no commentary. It was as informative to see real-time reactions to the arguments as it was to hear the arguments themselves.
January 19, 2009 9:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I remember the debates well. The focus was on the debaters and very little sense of any barrier between them and myself. The next best thing to being there.
I should add that I haven't watched television on television for a couple of years now. Partly this is because my computer and my cable hookup are in two different rooms, an partly this is because the longer I'm away from television the less I miss it. I catch what I need to catch (Olbermann, Madow, etc.) on streaming video or audio.
I will be watching the inaugural on the big screen...the VERY big screen--out at my university on the projection system. I don't know if I'll get it on C-span. I'll lobby for it. :-)
I'm gritting my teeth, listening to NPR know-it-all Linda Wertheimer compare this inauguration to Ronald Reagan's. Ugh.
January 20, 2009 7:46 AM | Reply | Permalink