Rotarians get inside look at Washington

C-SPAN community relations team member Jenae Green addressed the founding and mission of the Cable-satellite Public Affairs Network with the mission of non-partisan programming to the Starkville Rotary Club on Monday.

C-SPAN televises proceedings of the United States federal government, as well as other public affairs programming.

Before Green began her presentation, she recalled back when she gave a tour to a group of Mississippi State students from the university’s Stennis Institute who came to visit C-SPAN.

“I will say that although I didn’t go to Mississippi State, I feel very connected with the school,” said Green. “I have a really close friend who played football there, Vick Ballard. So, I promised him that after this, I will be able to brag about Starkville even more than him.”

After Green talked about her connection with MSU, she began her presentation on what C-SPAN is all about.

“Our democracy has faced many serious challenges, but let’s think about this,” said Green. “Have we ever faced so many at one time? Just in the course of last year, we’ve experienced the emergence of the worst pandemic in a hundred years, we’ve had an extremely volatile economy and job market, there has been widespread social unrest unfolding across the country, we’ve seen some of the most consequential fires and hurricanes that

we’ve had in years, and of course, a presidential and congressional election like no other in history. Now with the new Congress and administration, people are looking to their elected leaders in Washington more than ever to see how they’ll address all of the issues that our nation is facing.”

With the introduction to her presentation, Green went on to show the Rotarians as to why C-SPAN should be, at least, one of the key networks to turn to, not only to see how our public officials are responding to today’s pressing matters but to really show how their actions and their policies are affecting us and our community.

“At C-SPAN, you’ll see that we’re a little bit different, but we do like to say that we’re purposefully different,” said Green. “One thing that we pride ourselves in is that we do not attempt to tell you what to think, at all. Unique to television, we just put you in those rooms where the most important political and policy issues are being discussed and debated, then we allow to watch the events in their entirety for you to think for yourself and for you to make up your own mind.”

Green also said that contrary to people’s thinking, C-SPAN’S funding does not come through the federal government, rather it is funded as a public service, and it is paid through cable and satellite company fees that customers pay.

Next week, MSU’S Vice President of Access, Diversity and Inclusion Ra’sheda Boddie Forbes will speak to the Rotarians about the mission to expand the institution’s diversity.