That’s the argument to kill live C-SPAN coverage. We know politicians play to the cameras constantly. It’s obvious. Politicians have made their entire careers

That’s the argument to kill live C-SPAN coverage. We know politicians play to the cameras constantly. It’s obvious. Politicians have made their entire careers by becoming famous for their speeches on the floor. Do they really make a lot of those ridiculous charts and pictures for other politicians? I remember hearing from reporters and maybe even ex-representatives that things changed once the cameras came in. Things got worse. You couldn’t look weak by talking to/compromising with the other side. Bombast worked. It made polarization worse. It wasn’t a big club anymore, it was “us” and “them”. It won’t fix the rest of the media, but maybe C-SPAN is a failed experiment. The observer effect took over and changed the outcome.