C-SPAN: WHAT HAPPENED?

We The People's July Symposium on the Legality of the Income and Social Security Taxes, held at the National Press Club in Washington DC, was broadcast live on C-SPAN 2, and rebroadcast several times.

C-SPAN was contacted, thoroughly informed and enlisted to broadcast the Citizens' Summit to End the Illegal Operations of the IRS, which was held on Saturday, November 13, 1999, but C-SPAN was a "no-show." It not only failed to broadcast the event live, as it did in July, but it also failed to tape the event for later broadcast.

What was the public's reaction to this? Beginning as early as Saturday, November 13th, and continuing through Monday, November 15, 1999, C-SPAN received a flood of e-mails, faxes, and phone calls from people all across the country, asking why the Citizens' Summit was not being broadcast, or had not been broadcast, by C-SPAN. On Monday, November 15, 1999, C-SPAN started to respond to the people's inquiries with a standard message which read: "C-SPAN never said that we would cover the event. Our editorial board did not even consider it because they had no information about it. Apparently there is a misleading e-mail message making the rounds that claims we were scheduled to cover the event. I am sorry to inform you that this was never true, and that the IRS Symposium at the National Press Club will not air on C-SPAN or C-SPAN 2."

Upon learning of C-SPAN'S response, we immediately telephoned C-SPAN and spoke to "Marsha" and then "Justin," both from C-SPAN's "Viewer Services." We told them that they should not be telling people that C-SPAN had "no information" about the meeting, because it was not true, and people at C-SPAN knew that it was not true. We informed Marsha and Justin that we could easily show that C-SPAN'S assignment desk and, therefore, its editorial board knew about the meeting and its agenda well in advance of C-SPAN's daily afternoon editorial board meeting on Friday, November 12, 1999, at which it decided which of the following day's events it would broadcast live, which it would tape for later broadcast and which it would not cover at all.

Marsha agreed to immediately stop giving out the inaccurate response and to direct all inquiries on the subject to our website and to our e-mail address.

Under the facts and circumstances of the matter, we are as troubled over C-SPAN's behavior as are so many other people.

Due to the widespread and intense interest in the issue, we offer here the facts as we know them.

First, C-SPAN's web site (www.c-span.org) encourages people to e-mail C-SPAN at events@c-span.org to suggest events those people would like C-SPAN to cover. 

Note: For 6-8 weeks leading up to our July Symposium on the Legality of The Income and Social Security Taxes, and for 6-8 weeks leading up to the November 13th Citizens' Summit we received copies of e-mail messages people from towns across America had sent to C-SPAN requesting C-SPAN to cover the respective events.

Second. Because so many "off-hill" events take place in Washington DC everyday, C-SPAN does not decide which "off-hill" event it will cover until its daily, afternoon editorial board meeting the day before the event is scheduled to take place. With respect to each suggestion and request, C-SPAN decides to either cover the event live, tape it for later broadcast or not cover the event at all.C-SPAN has people who work at their "assignment desk," and gather the needed information about each event for presentation at the daily, afternoon editorial board meeting. Sponsors of events could submit the information about their event to C-SPAN long before the event is scheduled to take place. However, the assignment desk people usually do not focus on the information, and really don't require the information, until 2 or 3 days before the date of the event.

Note: Denise Douglas was the assignment desk person to whom we submitted the necessary information about the July Symposium (which C-SPAN broadcast live) and to whom we submitted the information about the November 13th Citizens' Summit (which, for some reason, C-SPAN did not cover).

Third. Early in September, 1999, we contacted C-SPAN's Viewer Services and spoke to a male representative. Without, yet identifying who was calling, we said that we would be scheduling an event in Washington DC during the week of November 8, 1999, the subject of the event was of nationwide interest, we were inclined to schedule the event for Saturday, November 13, 1999, to make it possible for more working people to attend the event, but that we did not want to foreclose on the possibility of C-SPAN coverage. In other words, we needed to know if C-SPAN avoided covering events on Saturdays. We told the person at Viewer Services that we were familiar with C-SPAN's policy and procedure regarding requests for coverage and that we knew no decision would be forthcoming until the day before the event, but we needed to know, in effect, if C-SPAN worked on Saturdays to broadcast events live or to tape events for later broadcast. To our surprise and delight, the young man immediately asked, "Is this the We The People group?" We said, "Yes." He then offered that C-SPAN has had a huge response to the July Tax Symposium, and that they have not been able to keep their tape of that event on the shelf because so many people were calling to request a copy. He then said that C-SPAN often broadcasts live on Saturdays, and that it would make no difference to C-SPAN which day of the week we held the event during that week in November. We told him that in that case we would schedule the Summit meeting for Saturday November 13, 1999.

Fourth. The information that C-SPAN requests from the sponsor of each event that the sponsor wants covered by C-SPAN is as follows: name of the event; sponsoring organization; description of the event; participants (confirmed); start time; end time; and, contact person.

Note: On June 26, 1999, six days before the July 1-2, 1999, date of our Symposium on the Legality of the Income and Social Security Taxes, we faxed the required information to Denise Douglas. On November 4, 1999, nine days before the November 13th date of the Citizens' Summit To End the Illegal Operations Of The IRS, Robert Schulz, Chairman of the We The People Congress, personally hand delivered a letter to C-SPAN at its office at 400 No. Capitol Street, NW, to the attention of Denise Douglas. This letter contained the required information.

Fifth. C-SPAN also usually requests a press release or press advisory relating to the event.

Note: Prior to our July Symposium on the Legality of the Income and Social Security Taxes, we not only sent C-SPAN a press release, we used the services of U.S. Newswire to transmit our press release to what they refer to as the "Washington Circuit," which includes approximately 361 major media outlets with Washington DC bureaus (most of which have offices within the National Press Building), as well as the White House, all cabinet agencies, the U.S. House Information System and the U.S. Senate Computer System.

On Friday morning, November 12, 1999 we faxed our press release to C-SPAN's Brad McGuire (as directed by Denise Douglas' voice machine), and e-mailed a copy to U.S.Newswire. At 12:24 pm on Friday, November 12, 1999, U.S. Newswire wired our press release to the Washington Circuit. All afternoon on Friday November 12th we tried to reach either Denise Douglas or Brad McGuire. We were unsuccessful. They may have been attending the daily, afternoon editorial board meeting. We were only able to leave messages on their voice machines.

Sixth.During the afternoon on Friday, November 12, 1999, we called C-SPAN's scheduling hotline to see what C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2 had scheduled for Saturday, November 13th. The schedule for C-SPAN showed a live broadcast between 8 and 10 am (Washington Journal) and another live broadcast Saturday night. Nothing was scheduled on C-SPAN between 10 am and 4 pm -- the hours of the Summit meeting. C-SPAN 2's schedule for Saturday reflected C-SPAN's long-standing commitment to book reviews. It was obvious that C-SPAN's schedule was open during the time of the We The People meeting.

Seventh. At about 1:00 pm on Friday, November 12, 1999, we received a telephone call from a Gary Gray who said he worked for the Department of Justice, located in the National Press Building, but that he was speaking personally. He said he knew that we were having a meeting the next day at the National Press Club. He said that he had gone to the National Press Club (located in the building) to inquire about the event and that he learned how many people we had guaranteed for breakfast and how many we had guaranteed for lunch. His first question was, "Is this going to be on C-SPAN?" We said we expected C-SPAN to broadcast the event, as they had our meeting in July, but we didn't know for sure. We explained C-SPAN's policy of not deciding and disclosing such things until after their daily, afternoon editorial board meeting, and that we didn't expect to hear from C-SPAN until later that day, if at all. Mr. Gray then asked if it was true that a U.S. Senator attempted to bribe someone to have the meeting cancelled. We answered, "No, but that at the Citizens' Summit meeting the next day, Bill Benson, one of the speakers would be disclosing the name of a U.S. Senator that attempted, in 1985, to pay to suppress Bill Benson's evidence of Philander Knox's fraudulent proclamation that the 16th Amendment had been properly and legally ratified by the States. We told Mr. Gray that during the July Symposium (aired live by C-SPAN) Bill Benson stopped short of naming the Senator and that Bill Benson was planning to name the Senator the next day during the Citizens' Summit. Mr. Gray then asked if the Senator was alive and in office. We said, "Yes." He then asked who the other speakers were. We told him that two former IRS agents would be speaking about their recent decisions to resign from the IRS because they could no longer enforce the Internal Revenue Code as if the taxes were compulsory, knowing as they did that the taxes are voluntary. We also identified as another speaker, David Bosset, the Florida employer who had recently convinced the IRS that filing and paying income and social security taxes was voluntary, not compulsory. Mr.Gray then asked, "What if Congress changed the law to make the tax compulsory?" We said, "Congress would still be faced with the problem of the unconstitutional 16th Amendment." We then asked Mr. Gray how he learned about the Summit. He hesitated, then said, "Someone sent me an e-mail." We asked if he was planning on attending the Summit. He said that he would try to get there. He offered that he was not calling in his official capacity, but as an interested citizen.

Eighth. C-SPAN has a T.V. camera hanging from the ceiling at the back of the Ballroom at the National Press Club, the room that the Citizens' Summit was being held in and the room where all major NPC events are held. C-SPAN is able to operate that camera remotely from its offices at 400 No. Capitol Street, N.W.. without having to tie up a full camera crew.

Ninth. C-SPAN did not contact us on Friday or Saturday. No one from C-SPAN showed up at the Citizens' Summit To End The Illegal Operations Of The IRS.

Tenth. The lobby of the National Press Building has approximately 10 T.V.'s built into one wall. They are operated by all the major broadcasters and appear to operate all day long. On Saturday afternoon, November 13,1999, we were told by one of the people attending the Summit the Summit that she observed that C-SPAN broadcasting re-runs of speeches by Congressmen to an empty chamber of the House of Representatives. We have been told that C-SPAN 2 was broadcasting reruns of book reviews.