Speaker Ryan had the livefeed cut off. So the House went to periscope, and CNN picked it up.
Okay, but the announcer just said that using the periscope cams is against the rules. Isn’t outing the rep taking the feed going to get him in trouble?
a) “against the rules” when you’re already participating in civil disobedience is kind of… well, yeah, they can scold them. It’s hard to scold someone who is a hero to their constituents, though. That just raises fundraising goals/makes them more of a hero (”they tried to shut us down. they failed. let’s raise money.”).
b) considering how many feeds they’ve run through at this point, from however many representatives, good luck with that.
c) According to the official House rules, no device may be used for still photography or for audio or video recording. Is that only when the House is in session, or any time? Is a livestream recording? Here’s a hair, let’s have fun splitting it.
Specifically, electronic devices are permitted
on the House floor so long as they do not “impair decorum.“ Unless you consider a lot of older people trying to get up off the floor after sitting there for several hours when it’s their time to speak indecorous, they haven’t specifically broken rules, only procedure.d) I strongly suspect everyone doing the periscoping considers the risk worth it.
The fact that something historically groundbreaking is happening in the House which is normally covered “gavel to gavel” by C-Span and broadcast nationally every single day for the last 37 years, yet suddenly someone with the power to pull the plug on that broadcast doesn’t like what’s happening and doesn’t want the American public to be aware of what’s happening within our own House of Representatives that we elected to be OUR VOICE in government, I 100% support the representatives who are trying to keep the coverage alive in whatever way they have available to them.
Watch as House Democrats Continue House Sit-in Over Gun Violence
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