C-SPAN host sees changes in callers

Steve Scully is the senior executive producer and political editor of C-SPAN, where he has worked since 1990.

He also hosts “Washington Journal,” a call-in show with journalists and politicians discussing public policy and legislation.

Scully, 56, recently talked about his family and politics in 2017.

You are the 14th of 16 children.

Yeah, five sets of twins.

Did being from such a large family make you a better listener?

If you want to understand what our callers are all about, come to a Scully Thanksgiving dinner because they are all ends of the spectrum. My dad was a Republican; my mom was a Democrat, very Catholic. Politics and reading the paper were a big part of growing up. We had and have and will continue to have some pretty raucous debates.

How have callers changed over time?

The callers, I think, are smarter and bettereducated — I think in large part because of the web. There certainly is a higher decibel (level) of either anger or frustration or emotion. If you had watched this network last year, the election of Donald Trump would not have surprised you because that was reflected by the people calling in.

Do you think politics is broken in America?

It’s not broken. We’ve been through this before. If you look at the civil-rights movement. Look at Vietnam. Look at the Clinton impeachment. You go back and read those stories. It was “broken” back then. The difference is the cacophony of voices out there and the media, which is so disparate and getting so many different headlines out there instantaneously. It was a divided election, so that contributes to it.