2011-12-22
On Parliamentary Camera Antics
“As Hoyer railed against them for failing to help working Americans, footage from C-SPAN went silent, then cut away. Moments later, C-SPAN took to the Internet to explain that it wasn’t their doing, but someone working for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).”Boehner’s office cuts off C-SPAN cameras as GOP takes verbal beating | The Raw Story - I’m not sure I fully understand the american system of politics, but this is basically a member of the opposition party turning BBC Parliament off?
No. The Speaker of the House is the leader of the biggest party in the lower house of Congress, so perhaps the best equivalent would be the Tory Chief Whip leading the entire parliamentary party out and getting the cameras switched off. (It’s that or the Prime Minister, but the US doesn’t have anything like the conflation of powers that the British do, so I decided to avoid that. It’s also a reminder of how different the systems are.)
UK Parliamentary coverage would presumably come under the Speaker’s remit, and he’s non-political, so it’s pretty unlikely in the UK (although I dare say he can and could get cameras switched off).
