The founder of C-SPAN accepted the Manship Prize for Exemplary Use of Media and Technology and the Chancellor’s Medal at a presentation Tuesday night.
Brian Lamb came to the University as part of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Lectureship series of speakers, which features top individuals and leaders in their fields of study.
In his speech, entitled “Not Just Sound Bites — How Television Can Promote Political Discourse,” Lamb confessed that he was not a stellar student at Purdue University, but his interest and “curiosity” for politics eventually led him to Washington, where he worked as a journalist and political press secretary.
According to a University press release, Lamb started C-SPAN in 1977 with the support of cable-industry executives to “deliver gavel-to-gavel coverage of the U.S. Congress.”
Lamb began his speech by tracing the roots of modern television back 25 to 30 years and identifying C-SPAN’s influences, beginning with a shift from liberal television anchors to controversial, conservative spokesmen such as John McLaughlin, Larry King, Rush Limbaugh and Chris Matthews. C-SPAN was the first network to simulcast Larry King.
Lamb said people should not avoid bias all the time because bias “is there, it will be there forever.”
Lamb said that C-SPAN’s goal is to inform America of what politicians are doing. He said that if the public is interested, C-SPAN plays the role in letting people participate by viewing the issues on the network.
“We are representing the people the way the founding fathers would have wanted it to be,” Lamb said, in regard to not editing what is broadcast on the network.
C-SPAN employs a staff of young people from their 20s to early 30s who constantly gather information and call people to learn all sides of issues.
Lamb said C-SPAN does have problems sometimes with accessing arguments.
Lamb said Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia “doesn’t allow anyone to tape his speeches,” though C-SPAN has asked him many times.
Lamb extended his “curious” nature to books, creating the C-SPAN series “Booknotes,” which has been on-air since 1989. Lamb reads a book a week and has interviewed more than 700 authors.
“I think that spending 15 to 20 years on subject [makes the author] a giant in society,” Lamb said.
Manship faculty members unanimously voted to give Lamb the Manship Prize for using “technology in a better way to inform America and bringing information to American voters,” according to Manship School of Mass Communication Dean John Hamilton.
This is the sixth year Manship faculty has given the prize to an individual who has used modern technology to “improve political discourse,” according to the press release.
Kevin Smith, dean of LSU’s Graduate School, also gave Lamb the Chancellor’s Medal, an award which usually is given to outstanding graduates with a 4.0 grade point average.