C-SPAN is under fire over accusations of lefty bias for declining to air two consecutive hearings held by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee – including one slated for Monday that’s expected to shed light on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s decision to indict former President Trump.
Tense exchanges between C-SPAN honchos and judiciary committee staffers have been revealed in emails examined by Fox News Digital regarding coverage of a February hearing held in Yuma, Ariz., that focused on border issues, and another planned for Monday in the Big Apple focusing on violent crime surging in Manhattan.
The latter is all but certain to spotlight a soft-on-crime progressive prosecutor’s controversial indictment of Trump, a Republican, on alleged hush money payments to reputed former paramours.
“I wanted to reach out to you as soon as I could to let you know that we won’t be able [to] send a crew to cover the House Judiciary field hearing on Victims of Violent Crime in Manhattan on Monday,” C-SPAN assignment desk manager Jon Kelley wrote to staffers Wednesday. “I know it is making a lot of news and we did look at possible coverage but we just don’t have the resources at this time.”
“Are you all serious?” a committee staffer fired back. “It’s the biggest hearing in Congress that I can think of.”
“I just wanted to let you know as soon as I could,” Kelley replied.
Prior to the hearing Feb. 23 hearing on border issues, C-SPAN congressional editor Robb Harleston told committee staff in a Feb. 14 email it would not cover the hearing because “we’re concerned about the absence of Dem members.”
“That’s a very disappointing decision,” a committee staffer responded. “The Democratic members were invited, and it’s still unknown if they will participate. We hope they do. To be clear: This is an official U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary hearing. The Committee has jurisdiction over immigration and border policies, and it should be worthy of C-SPAN’s coverage. We would really hate for this to damage our relationship going forward.”
“I appreciate your disappointment. If there’s any concrete decisions regarding Democratic involvement, we might reconsider,” Harleston replied.
C-SPAN is a nonprofit public service outlet known for airing government proceedings and public affairs programming.
The back-to-back snubs by C-SPAN — which have fueled allegations of political bias — were first reported by Julio Rosas from Townhall.com.
“They didn’t cover our hearing down in Yuma, Arizona, on the border when they should have, they’ve indicated they’re not going to cover this,” House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told Fox Business Thursday.
“Democrats are going to be there at this hearing [in Manhattan]… I don’t know why C-SPAN wouldn’t, but I think it just shows their bias.”
C-SPAN did not respond to requests for comment.