What If We Built a C-SPAN on Steroids?

[Commentary] Newspapers are collapsing, statehouse coverage is on the wane and lobbyists are quietly filling the gap. Here’s a solution. The plan is to make every legislative session, every committee meeting, every public hearing, every oral argument in court, executive branch public meetings and hearings, press conferences, and non-governmental public policy events around the state available live (and archived for later on-demand viewing). These multiple media streams would be accurate and balanced, professionally-produced, and stem from multi-camera coverage not subject to any government interference. The resulting permanent, searchable online libraries, which would also contain all the public documents that related to any covered event, would be accessible through a great user interface — making the job of understanding easier for citizens, legislators, scholars, and journalists alike.

[Crawford is the John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School]