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‘Shows their bias’: Jim Jordan says C-SPAN has passed on covering hearings twice

April 15, 2023 | | Print Article

House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan revealed on Friday that C-SPAN is refusing to cover an upcoming hearing in New York City about the violent crime in Manhattan.

Speaking on Fox Business Network’s “Kennedy,” he was asked point-blank, “Is there any chance that C-SPAN is covering this field hearing?”

“They’ve said not,” Jordan replied.

“That’s sort of consistent now with C-SPAN. They didn’t cover our hearing down in Yuma, Arizona, on the border when they should have. They indicated they are not going to cover this. Democrats are gonna be there at this hearing. I wouldn’t know why [they wouldn’t cover it]. I think most other people are going to cover this hearing. I don’t know why C-SPAN wouldn’t. It just shows their bias,” he added.

As previously reported, C-SPAN refused to cover a border crisis-related congressional hearing in February that was held in Yuma, Arizona.

It’s now known that C-SPAN’s decision to skip the border crisis hearing came after “tense exchanges between” the network’s staffers and the House Judiciary Committee’s staffers, as reported by Fox News.

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It started on Feb. 14th, roughly a week ahead of the hearing. At the time, C-SPAN congressional editor Robb Harleston told the committee’s staffers that the network wouldn’t cover the hearing because “we’re concerned about the absence of Dem members of the hearing.”

“That’s a very disappointing decision. The Democratic members were invited, and it’s still unknown if they will participate. We hope they do,” a committee staffer replied.

“To be clear: This is an official U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary hearing. The Committee has jurisdiction over immigration and border policies, and it should be worthy of C-SPAN’s coverage. We would really hate for this to damage our relationship going forward,” the staffer added.

Harleston replied by doubling down.

“I appreciate your disappointment. If there’s any concrete decisions regarding Democratic involvement, we might reconsider,” he wrote back.

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“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. I don’t think anything that’s happened so far that could be seen as damaging the relationship between C-SPAN and The Committee on the Judiciary,” he added.

In response, House Judiciary Committee staffers reportedly drew his attention to a 2019 field hearing in Los Angeles that was only attended by Democrats. It turns out that, surprise, surprise, C-SPAN had no problems covering that hearing.

“Strange, one party involvement didn’t seem to be an issue when Democrats were in charge of the House,” a staffer wrote to Harleston.

Harleston reportedly never wrote back.

A similar exchange concerning the upcoming hearing in Manhattan played out earlier this week.

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“In an email change that spanned Monday and Tuesday, Harleston corresponded with House Judiciary staff about the upcoming hearing in Manhattan. He asked for a list of potential witnesses, which were sent to him, as the staff requested that C-SPAN provide the pool camera for the hearing and stressed that Democrats were expected to attend,” according to Fox News.

Then on Wednesday, C-SPAN assignment desk manager Jon Kelley wrote an email to the House Judiciary Committee staffers announcing that, surprise, surprise, C-SPAN won’t be covering this hearing as well.

“I wanted to reach out to you as soon as I could to let you know that we won’t be able [to] send a crew to cover the House Judiciary field hearing on Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan on Monday. I know it is making a lot of news and we did look at possible coverage but we just don’t have the resources at this time,” Kelley wrote.

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The committee’s Republican members were not pleased.

“Must be tough to find a camera-crew in New York City… the media capital of the world… on a weekday… when there are no other House hearings going on,” they tweeted Thursday.

All this has both committee members and staffers convinced that, as Jordan said on Fox Business Network this Friday, C-SPAN is irreparably biased to the left.

“C-SPAN has failed to fulfill its mission to provide ‘a balanced presentation of points of view’ with its continued refusal to cover Republican-led House Judiciary Committee field hearings,” a source reportedly “familiar with the matter” told Fox News.

“Given they covered Democrat-run field hearings in the past, C-SPAN’s political bias is very clear and underscores a larger systemic problem with their editorial decisions,” the source added.

Vivek Saxena
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