Brian Lamb envisioned a news network that would air an inside look at America’s government in 1969.

His idea became a reality a decade later, when C-SPAN aired its first broadcast in 1979 – a speech by then-Congressman Al Gore.Lamb, 67, participated in a discussion with moderator Lorraine Branham, dean of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, and audience members in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium at 7:30 p.m Monday.

Lamb is the CEO and founder of C-SPAN, a public affairs television network that airs government proceedings and gives listeners un-edited and commercial-free news coverage.Irene Manahan, a senior political science and broadcast journalism major, said Lamb’s career is inspiring.

‘I liked how he had gone up to all these people, just telling them he had this idea,’ Manahan said. ‘It was in his gut that he knew this was something that needed to happen. He’s someone who follows his guts and his dreams. It’s good to know young people like myself can be as successful a journalist or CEO as him.’

Branham introduced Lamb to an audience of approximately 50 before the discussion began.’He does not want to be the anchor in the chair who everybody focuses on,’ Branham said.

‘Another thing he hates is small talk. He gets right to the point. So, today we’re going to make him do small talk,’ Branham said with a chuckle.

The event was coordinated by Charlotte Grimes, the Knight Chair in Political Reporting at Newhouse, and Robert McClure, the Chapple Family Professor of Citizenship and Democracy at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Grimes said the discussion was Lamb’s fourth appearance on campus Monday. He had lunch with several students, made an appearance in one of McClure’s classes, and had dinner with Newhouse faculty before the event. Grimes said despite Lamb’s modest behavior on television, he is very funny and always honest.

‘He is a model of journalism to me,’ Grimes said. ‘I think that it is very encouraging to see that our students want to be impartial journalists like Lamb.’

Lamb was involved in media from a young age. He discovered his love for radio after participating in a high school organization called the Bronco Broadcaster Club.

After graduating from Purdue University, Lamb went to law school for three days before quitting. He later joined the Navy and worked for President Lyndon Johnson’s administration and in the Pentagon’s public affairs office during the Vietnam War.

‘I got myself in trouble,’ Lamb said. ‘I worked to find out what the facts were instead of what the people at the Pentagon wanted the public to know. More often than not, I would see them manipulating. But you wanted to believe them, because you didn’t want to think that your leaders weren’t telling you the truth.’

Lamb said he has interviewed every president since Johnson, and that his approach to interviewing politicians and public officials is to ask an open question and then let them answer it.

Lamb, who worked on Richard Nixon’s administration, said the former president had the biggest impact on him of all the presidents he has interviewed.

‘You’re sitting in front of him and you can touch him,’ Lamb said. ‘You’re just like, ‘Oh my God, he’s real.’ That’s a bizarre experience. When someone that is known in all corners of the world is now sitting in front of you.’

The question-and-answer session with the audience yielded a variety of questions about bias in the news media, particularly from FOX News and MSNBC.

‘I personally don’t want anything but all sides,’ Lamb said. ‘A lot of people don’t want to hear the other side, so they go to where they’re comfortable. People want alternatives. In a country like this, what we have more than anybody else in the world is choice.’

blbump@syr.edu

Published on December 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm