Posted by
Dave Smith on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 1:04:09 PM
I normally agree wholeheartedly with economist Dr. Thomas Sowell; his book
Basic Economics should be required reading. However, I thought
this column, in which he denigrates television access to government proceedings, was way off base. In response, I sent him the following email:
Re: "Photographic Fraud"
Dear Dr. Sowell:
While I agree with your typical message of free market capitalism and individual liberty, and I agree with your sentiment in this column about the potential for image and message manipulation, I disagree with your conclusion that televising of government proceedings is a net negative and that we'd be better off with less direct access to the machinations and deliberations of government than we already have.
That politicians will perform before the cameras is a given, and likewise that much of the real negotiation happens outside of the camera's eye -- in the proverbial "smoke-filled rooms". But it can be useful information from what script a politician chooses to read even knowing that the cameras are on, and since members of our national legislature are allowed to "revise and extend" their actual remarks in the Congressional Record, direct, unedited, unvarnished information is sometimes only available thanks to the video recording.
Ratings for C-SPAN are miniscule, and probably the total number of viewers of a "Supreme Court-SPAN" would be even smaller. However, many in the so-called "mainstream" media have agendas, and it is thanks to bloggers and advocacy groups that we often even hear about some of the more egregious (or, in rare cases, laudable) statements and actions of our elected representatives. The viewers might be scarce, but that doesn't make them unimportant. That these images are often performances provides a context with which we can judge them accordingly; that many people might lack that context and perspective shouldn't limit access for everyone -- we don't define our society by the lowest common denominator, and that someone is less vigilant about his liberty than I shouldn't limit my own ability to hold government accountable.
A representative form of government is dependent on the ability of the electorate to hold its duly-elected leaders accountable. That task is made easier by more access to the workings of our government. Politicians are always going to spin, perform, lie, hedge, twist, and obfuscate. The fewer filters between the voters and the politicians, the more informed decisions we are able to make. Sunshine is the ultimate disinfectant.
Sincerely,
Dave Smith
Houston, TX