C-SPAN-like TV takes gavel-to-gavel state legislature hearings into living rooms

PHOENIX — People who can't get enough C-SPAN are getting more chances to watch legislative coverage from the comfort of their couches.

At a time when news media coverage of most state legislatures is increasingly sparse, there are now more than 20 stations across the country offering gavel-to-gavel legislative coverage. That's up from a handful in the 1990s.

Only about a dozen offer full broadcast slates. Others offer limited, part-time programming.

The programming isn't all humdrum public policy stuff: There are corruption scandals and election controversies and juicy hearings.

In Arizona, where a legislative TV system went on digital cable television in March, the regular lineup of floor sessions and committee hearings included oversight hearings into shortcomings of care at the state's nursing home for military veterans.

Those in the fledgling industry say the coverage goes beyond sound bites to let citizens see how their state governments — and their elected representatives — do the public's business.

"What we bring to the table is a primary source for people," said Paul Giguere, president of the National Association of Public Affairs Networks and founder of Connecticut's CT-N, one of the nation's oldest systems. "This is an opportunity for people to watch for themselves and make up their own mind."

CT-N covered Connecticut lawmakers' inquiry into former Gov. John G. Rowland's corruption scandal in 2004, and Connecticut Deputy House Speaker Bob Godfrey said the spotlight helped push Rowland from office.

"Even before there was reality TV, this was reality TV," Godfrey said of legislative coverage by CT-N. "This was unscripted, unrehearsed — what's actually going on live at the State Capitol, often on issues of interest in a general or specific way."

On the other side of the country, Washington state's TVW let residents watch blow-by-blow court proceedings over the close 2004 gubernatorial race.

The 2004 gubernatorial race's coverage was the "single signature event" that told TVW that the system had a significant following, TVW President Cindy Zehnder said. "Just on the last day we had 10,000 people streaming off our Web site."

In Alaska, anything and everything to do with a proposed multimillion-dollar natural gas pipeline was big news during this year's legislative session, said Randy Burton, producer for Gavel to Gavel Alaska.