From the Hickory Record (12/5/08): A state House committee is wrangling over details of televising legislative sessions, but it appears the House is well on its way to allowing the public to view its deliberations.
The House on television will give North Carolinians first-handknowledge of how our lawmakers work. It’s a natural step for publicoversight of its government.
The committee is hammering out who will oversee the broadcasts. It will report to House Speaker Joe Hackney later this month.
Committee members favor putting sessions on the Internet beforemaking the jump to television. They’re also leaning toward putting thespeaker in charge of setting broadcast policies.
A better route would be for a bipartisan committee submit policies to the House for legislative approval.
There’s an old saying that nobody should witness sausages or laws being made. That’s probably because of the odor.
There’s no such thing as Smellovision, at least not yet, sowitnessing our lawmakers in action will give their most importantcritics — voters — a better basis for evaluating House membersindividually and collectively. We’ll be able to tell if the proceedingsturn fetid.
But the House must not turn off the cameras in the middle of controversy or partisan haggling.
We remind legislators that the Open Meetings Law applies to them, and the public wants to watch what’s going on in Raleigh.