Should Supreme Court proceedings be televised?

[nlm]

Definitely not. The American People are already quite misinformed about the Supreme Court; their views would become even more distorted if they started listening to brief soundbites played on television.

Letting people see 30 second snips of something important would differ from the rest of American life how exactly? The American people are "allowed" to watch political attack ads; this would be more distorting how? People standing over the American public choosing what they are grown up enough to watch always smacks me wrong. If folks want to see the 30 second CNN version, well to bad for them; if they want the 4 hour CSPAN2 version, well maybe they need a life. But it would be their call.

[nlm]

Definitely not. The American People are already quite misinformed about the Supreme Court; their views would become even more distorted if they started listening to brief soundbites played on television.

Letting people see 30 second snips of something important would differ from the rest of American life how exactly? The American people are "allowed" to watch political attack ads; this would be more distorting how? People standing over the American public choosing what they are grown up enough to watch always smacks me wrong. If folks want to see the 30 second CNN version, well to bad for them; if they want the 4 hour CSPAN2 version, well maybe they need a life.

That's his point - it isn't different. He doesn't want that mess to be extended to the Supreme Court.

I got that John, and was just poking a little fun at the whole "we are the wise big brother watching over the dumb American people" thing going on here.

[nlm]

Oral arguments are typically one hour, not four, by the way.

Pre-game and post game coverage. it's the American way. Kidding.

[nlm]

I think they should.  People have such a distorted view of the SC partly because its so inaccesible.  If it were more accesible. people might have a better understanding of what goes on.

Thats kind of a weak argument. Few people would watch the proceedings, those that would (like us) already understand how the court works. Anyway, the Supreme Court should just do its job, and not worry what people think about it, thats partly why Congress has become so corrupted.

Congress has become corrupt because it worries about what the people of this country think? Please explain why you believe Congress actually cares what the people of this nation think (at least in terms of opinions that they can not manipulate with TV ads and PAC money) and how that leads to corruption. Do you also believe that if we prevented TV coverage of the legislative branch at the highest level it would reduce congressional corruption? Or does this have more to do with the spin put on the coverage which is made possible by the ridiculous amount of money in our political system? Just asking.