Caucus Diary
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This is a Caucus diary, a community diary created by The Caucus Project group at DailyKos.
The goal of this diary is not to debate the policy position of the diarist; it is for people who support the position statement to discuss and debate proposed ideas for action, and to organize. The diarist will post a position statement, which will include a solicitation for possible courses of action or a proposal for action, tactics and strategy.
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Position Statement:
The Grayson hearing (Guardian article on the Grayson hearing on NSA programs)
should be available to the widest possible audience. Right now, the C-SPAN TV schedule does not list this hearing in Wednesday's programming. This doesn't mean that they don't plan to televise the hearing, but there are some other things scheduled for that day and yet this one is not. If C-SPAN receives a lot of requests for coverage of this event, we might be able to influence the decision of their editorial board.
Other media organizations might also be influenced by our organized contacts to them.
Proposal for Action:
1) Right now, we should gather information and brainstorm ideas to urge the media to cover this hearing widely and make it available to the largest possible audience. After we come up with some good ideas, we should follow up with Caucus/Action diaries to organize the actions that we decide upon.
2) We should also discuss whether or not we want to organize liveblog coverage here at DailyKos. There are a couple of different methods of doing this, one of which involves using Twitter. (More information on this below).
Information from C-SPAN FAQs
C-SPAN FAQs:
How will I know when an event will air on TV?
Outside of our LIVE coverage of Congress, we air events as time in our schedule permits. A program may air up to four times, and will air at different times of the day and night to reach the widest range of viewers. Because of the nature of LIVE events, it is difficult to schedule programs in advance. We recommend that you go to our TV Schedules link in the top left corner of our home page and check for updates throughout the day. You will also find Schedule Updates on our television networks every 15 to 30 minutes announcing upcoming programs a few hours in advance.
[...]
How does C-SPAN choose what events they will cover?
C-SPAN's assignment desk keeps well informed of events happening in the public affairs arena. Our editorial board meets daily to determine what events our cameras will cover. If there is an event that you feel we should cover, you can contact us at 202-737-3220.
[Emphasis added]
C-SPAN Contact Information
Twitter: @cspan
Facebook: C-SPAN on Facebook
Phone: 202-737-3220
Address: 400 N. Capitol St NW, Suite 650, Washington, DC 20001
Email:
Brainstorm
What can and should we do to urge C-SPAN and perhaps other media organizations to televise (and make available via livestreaming) the Grayson hearing on Wednesday which gives critics of the NSA surveillance programs a voice?
Should we do this?
Is there something we should do first before organizing mass phone calls, tweets, emails?
How best do we organize?
Should we focus on one method of contact or various methods? Should we do a Twitter campaign on Monday and Tuesday? Should we limit it to the main contact methods or should we send tweets to the morning program, Washington Journal, where they regularly watch Twitter at a particular Twitter ID set up for it, even though they are generally interested in tweets that are on topic to the day's discussions?
Should we also try to contact other media organizations such as MSNBC, PBS, CNN, others?
Timing?
Other ideas?
Addendum: I may be able to go down to Capitol Hill, sit in the hearing and blog it from there, but I have never run a liveblog of an event before. I understand that someone on the other end would have to run the actual diary so that I could focus on reporting what I saw/heard onsite. I have a message in to Grayson's staffer to figure out whether or not there will even be the connection necessary in the room for me to blog (I know it sounds crazy, but there's not always a WiFi connection available on the Hill, or at least there wasn't three years ago which is the last time I tried to do anything like this).
Kudos to joanneleon who did the bulk of the work for this diary!
8:01 PM PT: Guys: The Grayson hearing has been cancelled and will be rescheduled (at least that is what we are currently hearing) because Obama called for a meeting of House Democrats on Wednesday morning at the White House at the same time as the hearing, We are trying to find out when the rescheduled event will be. When we know more, we'll post a diary letting you know. Sorry for the inconvenience, but the time, tide and the White House wait for no man.