The Difference Between C-SPAN and CNN

In April, I was picked up as a freelancer by a production house based in Roeland Park, KS.

So far, all the work I have done with them has been for C-SPAN.

In explaining this to my father, he is clearly confusing C-SPAN for CNN. Well, I'd like to take a minute to explain the difference.

CNN is the 24-hour cable news channel started in 1980 by Ted Turner. It was the first all-news channel on cable and is today considered the channel of the news/political establishment. That said, they do not have a liberal bias (an erroneous charge often made toward mainstream media in the US). C-SPAN (which stands for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network) started one year earlier. Instead of reporting on news, they focus on federal proceedings and other public affairs oriented events. They are most known for airing the proceedings in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. Also, unlike CNN (a division of Time Warner), they are nonprofit.

What we do for C-SPAN is primarily for Book TV and focuses on lectures about historical happenings. I will say these lectures are quite educational.

Most simply: C-SPAN, I do work for. CNN, not so much.