How C-SPAN's Coverage of Downballot Races Is Helping Fill Local News Gaps

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If there's any television network out there that intentionally tries to buck the trends of modern day media consumption, it's C-Span. With its live, unedited broadcast of political events and congressional hearings and call in shows featuring the full range of the country's political views, C-Span has held firm to its mission of providing unfiltered access to political decision makers since it first streamed from the US. Capitol in 1979 But that doesn't mean they don't innovate. Leading that effort is my guest today, Sam Feist. Sam joined C-Span in 2024 after 30 years at CNN where he was involved with pretty much every facet of that cable news outlet's political coverage. Feist has helped C-Span launch a new project that he hopes will not only give viewers that same unfiltered access to candidates involved in the most competitive races this cycle, but it can also help struggling state and local news media. This project called Road to the Capital, Candidate Coverage from the Trail, has C-Span video journalists out on the road, tracking and capturing the candidates and their campaign events. C-Span then shares this coverage with local media outlets in those states, helping them with political reporting they need but can no longer afford. Sam and I talked about this project, but also the role he sees C-Span playing at a time of changing consumer habits and massive media upheaval. We recorded this conversation on Monday, September 14

Sam Feist, hello, great to see you.

Sam Feist (2:59)

It is great to see you. It's been a while and I don't think we've visited at least on camera since I got to C-Span.

Amy Walter (3:06)

I know. Well, we have to talk about that because I've known you for approximately 116 years starting, of course, CNN, which you've spent the bulk, I would say most of your career at CNN, correct?

Sam Feist (3:21)

Yeah, 33 years at CNN.

Amy Walter (3:24)

33 years at CNN.

Sam Feist (3:25)

I started when I was a toddler, obviously.

Amy Walter (3:27)

Of course you did. Of course you did.

Now you are running C-Span. I don't think of CNN and C-Span in the same category, Sam. They seem genetically as far from each other on the spectrum as you could possibly be. So what brought you from breaking news alerts to the C-Span universe?

Sam Feist (3:56)

Well, they are definitely genetically different. CNN is owned and has been owned by very large companies from Time Warner to AT&T to Warner Brothers Discovery, and likely soon maybe we'll see Paramount. And C-Span is not. C-Span is a non-profit, right? We're not owned by anybody.

We're a non-profit television network. We don't get government funding. And in that respect, we're just very different.

I covered politics and produced quite a number of political television programs at CNN. And so in terms of the subject areas or the content, there's some similarity, right? I've spent most of my career in Washington covering American politics, and that is what C-Span does. But otherwise, they are very different. C-Span is not a 24-hour news channel. We are a public affairs network that our tagline is democracy unfiltered. Our mission is to bring America's government or coverage of those who want to run America's government to you without filter, without any putting our thumb on the scale, without any partisanship. We don't tell you who's right and wrong. We just bring it out there and let you decide for yourself.

Amy Walter (5:16)

So did C-Span want to bring somebody from CNN to make C-Span feel more like CNN, or you went to C-Span because you wanted to get back to a place that felt less focused on the private sector motivations for the media universe and more at its essential core, as you said, going right at getting unfiltered access.