House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has rejected a request by C-SPAN to use some of its own cameras to cover the historic debate over articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, meaning that if there are any protests or disruptions they will not make it onto video screens across the nation and around the world.
The House’s effort to impeach Donald Trump reached its most contentious phase on Wednesday — debate over the actual charges to remove him from office — in a primetime “markup” hearing that broadcast networks declined to cover. CNN and C-SPAN were the only cable outlets to carry the impeachment hearings uninterrupted.
How To Reach The Undecided On Impeachment
Margaret Sullivan: “Weeks into the House of Representatives’ public impeachment hearings, Americans’ positions seem to have hardened on whether President Trump should be impeached and removed from office. So, is the media coverage pointless? Are journalists merely shouting into the void? Rather than providing a catering service for the echo chambers, how might journalism address this important group?”
It Looks Like GOP Wants To Impeach The Media
Kathleen Parker: “As the second week of the impeachment hearings began, Republicans reintroduced an old theme for the usual purposes: Everything is the media’s fault, and America wouldn’t be in this jam but for journalists being puppets of the Democratic Party.”
NEW YORK (AP) — The reviews are biting: “mind-numbingly dull,” “a huge dud” and “a frickin’ joke.” Yet they’re coming from an unusual place — Fox News Channel personalities talking […]
Exclusives
Sinclair Broadcast Group appears to have skipped Tuesday’s impeachment hearings in the House of Representatives. Stephanie Ruhle of NBC was happy to jump into its abandoned seat. She posted a picture of her press pass on the vacant Sinclair seat on Twitter. “Well–no risk of @WeAreSinclair popping up with comments,” she tweeted. “On this historic day, their decision not to come has resulted in me getting a seat.”
‘Boring’ Impeachment Hearings Help Dems
Joe Ferullo: “Modern media culture may be overheated and then some, but the House impeachment hearings prove once again that television is at heart a “cool” medium. So far, that’s good news for the Democrats. Critics of all stripes have pummeled the hearings for “lacking in pizzazz” and playing out like “a tepid bore.” But under the rules of certain kinds of television, that’s a good thing.”
WTTG Covers First ‘Social Media’ Impeachment
Fox-owned WTTG Washington is alone among the major affiliate stations in the Nation’s Capital not airing live coverage of the impeachment hearings just across town. But there is more to the story. WTTG and co-owned WDCA VP GM Patrick Paolini took a quick break Friday (Nov. 15), in the midst of the station’s coverage of the day-two hearing, to talk about that decision and the Fox’ O&O’s larger coverage strategy.
The first day of the impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump drew over 13 million total viewers across the broadcast and news networks combined. Fox News’s coverage from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. drew the highest total viewership of any network, averaging around 2.9 million sets of eyeballs. Of the broadcast nets, ABC was tops with 2 million total viewers watching its impeachment coverage between 9:50 am and 4 p.m.
For six hours, career diplomats George Kent and Bill Taylor sat before Congress and answered questions. But from the immediate media response, it was hard to shake the sense that the proceedings didn’t pierce partisan gridlock or pre-set opinions.
C-SPAN coverage of a ho-hum congressional hearing usually features three cameras — one head-on camera for the chair; one for the witness; and another side camera for the committee members. There will be no standard operating procedure come Wednesday morning, however. C-SPAN will have seven cameras around the hearing room — two cameras for the chair and other members; two cameras for either side; one witness camera; and two high and wide cameras for that panoramic look. The additional cameras will enable C-SPAN to “better capture the interaction among everybody” in the room.
Plans vary from station to station and feature a mix of coverage on-air, on websites, social media platforms and duopoly stations.
Bill Moyers, the legendary former PBS host and network news commentator, says he fears for the United States “for the first time in my long life.”
on Wednesday — as televised impeachment hearings begin in the House of Representatives — journalists need to be on their game. The stakes don’t get much higher when it comes to fulfilling their core mission: informing citizens of what they really need to know.
When the House impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump begins its public phase on Wednesday, people will be watching on screens large and small. Many, in fact, are likely to be watching the proceedings on more than one screen, with real-time reinforcement of their preexisting views of Trump on social media platforms and other venues that did not exist in Nixon’s time.
The first open impeachment hearing on President Trump of the House intelligence committee’s hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, with the second on Friday at 11 a.m.
Public impeachment hearings begin Nov. 13, Rep. Adam Schiff said Wednesday (Nov. 6), and, not surprisingly, C-SPAN immediately announced plans to cover them gavel-to-gavel. A Fox News Channel spokesperson told Broadcasting & Cable that it will also cover the hearings “wall-to-wall,” specific anchors yet to be determined.
If history is any guide, impeachment hearings could have a lasting impact on how viewers consume their news.
