{"id":29853,"date":"2018-05-20T01:18:31","date_gmt":"2018-05-20T01:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29853"},"modified":"2018-05-20T01:18:31","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T01:18:31","slug":"recalling-a-long-lost-journalism-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29853","title":{"rendered":"Recalling a long, lost journalism memory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I discovered something on the Internet I didn’t know even existed. To be candid, it blew me away to find it. So much so that I want to share it here.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/?77319-1\/texas-19th-congressional-district<\/a><\/p>\n

The quality of the video isn’t great, but it’s watchable if you’re interested.<\/p>\n

C-SPAN is the network that appeals mainly to political junkies. I am one of them. The call letters stand for “Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network.” Need I say more?<\/p>\n

I enjoy the network and its utterly unbiased presentation of the discussion of the issues of the day. Its founder, Brian Lamb, is legendary in his insistence that his on-air reporters steer clear of any bias.<\/p>\n

In 1996, I was new to the Texas Panhandle. I had started a job a year earlier as editorial page editor of the Amarillo Globe-News. C-SPAN was conducting a nationwide tour of every congressional district in the United States.<\/p>\n

The network called me and asked if I would be willing to be interviewed for a discussion of the 19th Congressional District and its representative, Lubbock Republican Larry Combest.<\/p>\n

“Sure,” I said. Here’s the deal, though: I had to study up on the 19th\u00a0 District, learn enough about it to talk intelligently about it for broadcast on the air.<\/p>\n

C-SPAN’s series featured a “school bus” that came to each congressional district. It contained a traveling camera crew. A reporter asked me questions; a cameraman video recorded it. The interview lasted about 30 minutes at the AGN offices in downtown Amarillo. The finished product was cut down to about three minutes on the air.<\/p>\n

It was a fascinating “teachable moment” for this newcomer to the Texas Panhandle. It presented me with one of the more incredible experiences of my journalism career. I enjoyed doing it immensely.<\/p>\n

In 1996, Amarillo was divided into two congressional districts. Combest represented the19th, which included Randall County. The northern portion of Amarillo was represented by the 13th District and its then-freshman congressman, Republican Mac Thornberry.<\/p>\n

I honestly cannot remember who C-SPAN recruited to talk on the air about the 13th District; hey, it was a long time ago.<\/p>\n

This is just a nugget that I wanted to share with you, given the many miles the world has traveled over the past two-plus decades since this segment aired in the delivery of news and commentary to the public.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I discovered something on the Internet I didn’t know even existed. To be candid, it blew me away to find it. So much so that I want to share it here. https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/?77319-1\/texas-19th-congressional-district The quality of the video isn’t great, but it’s watchable if you’re interested. C-SPAN is the network that appeals mainly to political junkies. … Continue reading Recalling a long, lost journalism memory<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[27,5439,794,2732,2849],"class_list":["post-29853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-news","category-national-news","tag-13th-congressional-district","tag-1960-campaign","tag-c-span","tag-larry-combest","tag-mac-thornberry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29854,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29853\/revisions\/29854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}