C-SPAN founder, president and CEO Brian Lamb (pictured above) said at the annual James L. Loper Lecture in Public Service Broadcasting on Nov. 20 that the journalism industry is better off than people think, although traditional media are competing with individuals who can write, shoot video and blog as quickly as the industry giants.
The lecture focused on the past — and future — of public service broadcasting, especially during today's period of economic transformation in the country and the media.
"People really, really care about information," Lamb said. "I think we’re going to be a lot better off than people in journalism think."
Lamb said he had 100 "no" answers before his first positive answer when first seeking funding for public broadcasting 30 years ago.
"That’s how it started in a time where the environment was, 'Cable was not going to happen — It wasn’t going to work and nobody would buy it,'" he said. "My thought was, 'If you keep your costs down, it’ll happen.'"
Lamb continues to work on a tight operating budget — including a modest personal income — that has proved his theory correct over the years.
"If you add up every single penny I’ve made in the last 40 years, it doesn’t add up to what a network news anchor makes in a year," he said.
C-SPAN is a private, non-profit company, created in 1979 by Lamb and funded by the cable television industry as a public service. Its mission is to provide public access to the political process. C-SPAN receives no government funding.
“I have been able to live my dream," he said. "It has taken hundreds of others, including others in the business world who never get credit for anything for standing behind us.”
"It’s not so much which tools you use, but how do you employ all of these tools to empower people?" said Wilson, who is the ranking senior member of the board of directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. "Whether it’s a flip camera, e-mail, traditional legacy radio ... How can Americans use these tools to create a stronger democracy and create a more competitive and compassionate United States of America?
"We at the Annenberg School take special pride in this annual lecture," he continued. "The challenge to public broadcasting is too important to leave it alone. We have to be engaged in it, and that means engaging the students at the Annenberg School."
Lamb said nobody knows exactly what the future holds, but that it is important for media to change with the times and be fiscally responsible.
"You have to be a little more agile and nimble right now to survive," he said.
Political commentator and talk show host Tavis Smiley introduced Lamb, calling him a visionary leader.
"I believe more than anything else in truth," said Smiley, who shares Midwest roots with Lamb, including Lafayette, Ind., where Smiley will attend church with his mother on Sunday and Lamb was born. "If C-SPAN stands for anything, for me it stands for telling people the truth. My definition of leadership: 'You can’t lead people, unless you love people. You can’t save people if you don’t serve people.' His depth for love of the American people is unquestioned."
Lamb finished by again talking about change. He noted that Congress is moving toward televising its own hearings that he expects will be fed directly to the Web, and the new American History Museum in Washington, D.C. promptly Webcast the activities for its opening week. He said he can imagine a time when political and government organizations will stop calling for independent media coverage.
"It’s a changing world, and we better wake up and smell the coffee or I’ll be back in Lafayette drinking tap water," Lamb said.
C-SPAN
Center on Communication Leadership
TVWeek article
Past lectures:
November 12, 2007: William F. Baker Learn more Watch the video Read the transcript (PDF)
November 16, 2006: William H. Kling Learn more Watch the video Read the transcript (PDF)
November 10, 2005: Mary Bitterman Learn more Watch the video Read the transcript (PDF)
