Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Bandwith...Or Boredom?

OK, on this one color me not convinced.  Tim Fernholz:
TPM's Christina Bellantoni has made a list of public figures who are taking a breather from public scrutiny during Gen. Stanley McChrystal's 15 minutes of gaffe. The one group that she forgot to add, though, is telling: The banks and their lobbyists currently fighting strong financial reform during conference committee negotiations between the House and the Senate.
While the conference committee meetings, which promised unusual transparency, were much anticipated, the increasing focus on the BP disaster left both members of Congress and the media with limited bandwidth for the issue.
I don't know... now, I happen to be the sort of person who is bitter because Dish Network won't add C-SPAN 3, but the combination of banking regulation and congressional posturing...well, I'm just not buying that there was ever much of a market for that one.  Among the public, or within the press corps.  I don't know...I get that banking regulation is important, but interesting?  We're not talking about a policy area that really draws the crowds, or gets top billing on the stump.  And, yes, what happens in and around the conference committee is important, but for better or worse it's floor action that almost always gets the coverage, not mark-ups or, most of the time, conferences.  I'm sort of thinking that if it wasn't the BP disaster and McChrystal, it would have been something else in the real news, or perhaps shark attacks, that Aruba thing, or just more World Cup hype.  

2 comments:

  1. If C-SPAN covers the House of Representatives, and C-SPAN 2 covers the Senate, then what's on C-SPAN 3? Meetings of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations? Masonic rites and smoke-filled rooms?

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is the best comment I've read in months

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Who links to my website?