The Effect of Televised Legislatures on the Output of Legislation

Abstract

Critics charge that televised legislative sessions become studios for political campaigning. Normal legislative business cannot proceed as usual. Senator Russell Long and others used this argument to kill 1984 legislation that would have allowed live television and radio broadcasts of the U.S. Senate.¹ This argument sounds sensible, but exactly how does television change legislative proceedings? This chapter analyzes this question. The U.S. Senate began live broadcasts of its sessions in 1986, and over half of the state legislatures have implemented television. If television distorts normal legislative operations, distortions are all around us.