C-SPAN boss Sam Feist talks about the channel's future, negotiating with A.I. companies, access issues, and more

Sam Feist was appointed as chief executive of C-SPAN in May after a long run as CNN's Washington bureau chief. He may be new to the role, but he has had no choice but to hit the ground running, taking the helm at an important juncture in the channel’s 45-year history.

Not only is Donald Trump set to take office later this month, which will introduce a healthy dose of chaos into Washington and make C-SPAN’s mission of government transparency more important than ever, but like other television networks, it is also grappling with the decline of linear television.

I spoke with Feist this week about how he'd like to move the network into the future, access issues, how his new job differs from working at CNN, and more. Plus, Feist revealed for the first time that C-SPAN is chatting with A.I. companies about a possible partnership. Below is the Q&A, lightly edited for style.

Usually, the House forbids independent media coverage of its proceedings, meaning that networks must rely on a government feed for coverage. But for the Friday election of House speaker, C-SPAN was permitted to deploy its own cameras for independent coverage. For those who might not know, can you explain how this impacted coverage of the speaker election?

Typically, C-SPAN and the other television networks rely on House TV for video from inside the chamber which is controlled by House of Representatives. That video feed only shows the person speaking. On rare special occasions, we have been given permission to bring C-SPAN’s own cameras into the chamber and Friday was one of those days. It’s how we were able to see the frantic negotiations going on between Republicans during the speaker vote.

We were able to see Rep. Chip Roy stand in the silence at the back of the chamber as his name was called to vote. We watched members take calls that we now believe were from President-elect Donald Trump. None of the political drama would have been seen on C-SPAN or any other network without access for C-SPAN’s cameras. Of course, this is political drama that has an enormous impact on every American and I believe that in the “People’s House”, the American people deserve to see it.

In 2023, CSPAN petitioned then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy to allow its cameras in the chamber during the regular course of business. Do you plan to bring the issue up again?

Absolutely. We would love to have access to the House and Senate chambers with our own cameras full-time. We have consistently asked leaders of both parties in the past and we will of course ask again. I am not holding my breath, but I would love to be surprised.

With the decline of linear television, how do you plan to reposition CSPAN so it can adapt to the new media environment and reach younger audiences who get their information from non-traditional mediums?

We have to meet our audiences where they are. If you haven’t checked out C-SPAN’s TikTok feed, Oliver, I think you’ll really enjoy what you see. With much more to come.

CSPAN was established by the cable television industry. But as it does decline, could you see the network forging partnerships with streamers like Netflix or Hulu? And do you think that, like cable television, perhaps streamers should help finance a channel like CSPAN to shed light on the inner-workings of government?

Comcast founder Ralph Roberts described C-SPAN as “cable’s gift to America.” That will never change. And of course C-SPAN is already distributed on cable, satellite, and streaming services of such distributors as Comcast, Verizon, DirecTV, Charter, Cox, and Dish. They tell us it’s part of their civic responsibility, particularly since we receive no government funding.

As I said earlier, we need to meet audiences where they are and streamers are a part of it. And of course it’s a near-term priority for C-SPAN to be a part of YouTube TV, Hulu plus Live TV, and other growing linear streaming packages. When cable customers cut the cord and switch to YouTube TV, many are surprised to find out that YouTube TV does not currently distribute C-SPAN. Hopefully that will change soon.

A number of news publishers have struck licensing deals with OpenAI. Might CSPAN form such a partnership with an A.I. company?

C-SPAN has a vast video digital video library with almost 300,000 hours of public affairs content from the last 50 years – larger than any other network’s. This archive gives us significant opportunities to work with an A.I. partner; we are having discussions with A.I. companies already and hope to have more on that soon.

We live in an age of misinformation. What role does CSPAN play in countering bad information about government processes?

One of the most valuable ways to fight misinformation and specifically to detect manipulated video is to go to the original source. C-SPAN’s enormous archive means that we are most likely to have the original source video that you can compare suspicious video against. That archive is already available to the public, but we hope to work with an A.I. company to make it even easier to search and detect manipulated video by comparing a suspicious video to what is in our archive.

I'm curious: How would you address criticism that CSPAN's neutral nature could allow misinformation to spread unchecked? Donald Trump's Republican Party lies and promotes conspiracy theories at a far higher rate than we've seen in modern American politics. Should the onus be on viewers to separate fact from fiction?

C-SPAN’s new tagline is “Democracy Unfiltered.” Regardless of which party is in power, every day our viewers hear extensively from Republican officials and from Democratic officials. We air the floor of the House and Senate, we air Congressional hearings, and we air events from the president: all unfiltered and in their entirety. Every day, we take calls from Democratic, Republican, and Independent voters. C-SPAN is quite literally at the center of America’s marketplace of ideas.

C-SPAN’s audience is also a unicorn in the news media in that we have equal numbers of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. That audience is exposed to a balanced and bipartisan view of what is happening and what is being said in Washington by America’s elected officials.

C-SPAN’s mission is not to tell voters who is right and wrong; our job is give them the tools to decide for themselves. We do not have pundits or fact-checkers on staff and don’t plan to add them.

Prior to assuming the role as CSPAN boss, you were the longtime Washington bureau chief for CNN. How has your new job been different?

C-SPAN is a remarkable place and it’s the honor of my career to lead this organization. Obviously as the CEO, I have responsibility for much more than just daily news coverage. At CNN, I was responsible for a bureau, albeit CNN’s largest bureau. I now have responsibility for overseeing all aspects of C-SPAN’s operation including distribution, marketing, funding, etc. I am also following in the footsteps of C-SPAN’s founder Brian Lamb at a time when C-SPAN has never been more important. As such, I’m the steward of a great American institution and that’s probably the weightiest responsibility of all.

Dawsey Departs: The talent exodus is now fully underway at Jeff Bezos’ embattled newspaper. Josh Dawsey will exit The Washington Post, I’m told, for a position at The Wall Street Journal. A spokesperson for The Journal didn’t respond to an inquiry, but Dawsey — who is currently on leave writing a book about the 2024 presidential campaign — will start at the Rupert Murdoch-owned broadsheet in February as a political investigations reporter, according to people familiar with the matter. While brass at The WaPo tried to dissuade Dawsey from departing, the star reporter had already made up his mind, I’m told. He is very unlikely to be the last out the door, either.

🔍️ Zooming in: It’s not difficult to see why Dawsey and so many of his colleagues at the newspaper would wish to exit the Will Lewis-led outlet. In a year’s time, both Bezos and Lewis have arrogantly made a number of decisions that have alienated staffers. Most notably, just before the November vote, Bezos blocked the newspaper’s editorial board from publishing a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris, leading to morale inside the outlet collapsing and more than a quarter-million readers canceling their subscriptions. But, while that incident garnered the most attention, it was just one of many contributing to the toxic work environment at the storied outlet. For example, just on Friday, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned over the paper’s refusal to publish a cartoon zinging Bezos for kissing the ring of Donald Trump (notably, The WaPo’s own media desk has not published a story on the matter). The truth is that Lewis lost the newsroom several months ago and Bezos’ own actions have both flummoxed and frustrated staffers. Now, with the November election in the rear-view mirror, most of those who have other options are choosing to take them and leave.