C-Span Publishes Video Archive Online

C-Span is to announce on Wednesday that it's online video archive, c-spanvideo.org, has been completed, covering some 23 years of political history from the United States Congress.  The archive, which also covers the history of five presidential administrations, will be available freely to the public to seach through and include thousands of hours of coverage.

The New York Times' Brian Stelter writes;

Having free online access to the more than 160,000 hours of C-Span footage is “like being able to Google political history using the ‘I Feel Lucky’ button every time,” said Rachel Maddow, the liberal MSNBC host.

Ed Morrissey, a senior correspondent for the conservative blog Hot Air (hotair.com), said, “The geek in me wants to find an excuse to start digging.”

No other cable network is likely to give away its precious archives on the Internet. (Even “Book TV” is available.) But C-Span is one of a kind, a creation of the cable industry that records every Congressional session, every White House press briefing and other acts of official Washington.

The online archives reinforce what some would call the Web’s single best quality: its ability to recall seemingly every statement and smear. And it is even more powerful when the viewer can rewind the video.

The C-Span founder, Brian Lamb, said in an interview here last week that the archives were an extension of the network’s public service commitment.

Read more here.