C-SPAN refused to broadcast a House Judiciary hearing at the border last week after Democrats refused to show up for the hearing.
Republicans tried to convince C-SPAN to broadcast it, but they refused because they were concerned with the absence of Democrat members at the hearing.
Even House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s office got involved, but C-SPAN continued to decline.
Here’s more from Townhall:
Sources on Capitol Hill tell Townhall C-SPAN Congressional Editor Robb Harleston was initially receptive to the idea when they told him about the hearing earlier this month, calling the idea “great.”
The next day, Harleston flatly declined to have C-SPAN cover the hearing because, “We’re concerned about the absence of [Democrat] members of the hearing.”
GOP staff tried to impress upon Harleston the event was an official hearing being put on by the Judiciary Committee on an issue they have jurisdiction over. Harleston continued to cite how Democrats choosing to not attend the hearing meant C-SPAN would not broadcast it, then lastly mentioning they were dealing with a manpower shortage.
“If there’s any concrete decisions regarding Democratic involvement, we might reconsider,” Harleston told them. “However, while we understand the gravity of this issue, without a balanced member representation it’s been decided we’re going to pass on coverage. We’re also operating under a limited manpower situation, which forces us to make tough coverage decisions.”
Democrats lied about the hearing, claiming Republicans hadn’t consulted them on the hearing being at the border.
But Jim Jordan expressly made them aware of it at the end of their hearing on February 1st. He announced there would be a hearing at the border, gave the dates and said ‘we want to make the minority aware of that’ while they were in the room.
In fact, here's @Jim_Jordan inviting them to join during our first hearing! pic.twitter.com/rjLGD8mzCK
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) February 16, 2023
Townhall points out that in 2019 C-SPAN broadcast a House Financial Services hearing in Los Angeles in which most Democrats and Republicans didn’t attend:
The thin excuse C-SPAN gave was further undercut due to the network broadcasting a field hearing that was put on by then-House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) in Los Angeles in 2019 when no Republicans were present. Only four Democrats were at the Los Angeles hearing, as opposed to 14 Republicans who were present for the Yuma hearing.
C-SPAN wants people to believe they are non-partisan and they do normally operate that way. But refusing to broadcast an official Republican committee hearing all because Democrats refused to go would suggest they aren’t as non-partisan as they’d have us believe.