Tempus fugit. Eventually age or time forces retirement, at least in most industries and agencies. Some enter retirement voluntarily, others kicking and screaming. Some, like Senators, may seemingly never retire. I always found it an interesting fact that Senator Strom Thurmond was 100 when he retired from the US Senate. At the time, as the most senior senator of his party, served as president pro tempore. That meant he was in line for the presidency. For a time in 2001, had something happened to President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, Thurmond would have ascended to the presidency, ironically some 53 years after he ran as a Dixiecrat against Harry Truman.
Of the people I’m sad to see retire is Brian Lamb, the founder and now retired CEO of C-SPAN who stepped down on Friday from the unique network he established 47 years ago. Among the many athletes, actors, politicians, economists and others who have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, I can think of few who truly deserved it more when he was awarded it in 2007.
(Photo: Ron Edmonds/AP)
After briefly serving in the Navy, Lamb later had a simple idea and in 1977 proposed the concept to record the proceedings of Congress. The first broadcast occurred two years later. Since then, C-SPAN has become perhaps the greatest repository of congressional activity - speeches by members and senators and administration officials. It hasn’t been without controversial, with some arguing over the years it encouraged members, especially in the early years, to “play for the cameras.” Perhaps, but it is still a record, positive or negative, of our government officials and the often-empty chambers they speak to.
Lamb’s C-SPAN, which given his humility would argue isn’t “his,” also produced Booknotes from 1989-2004 providing an additional repository of rich interviews with authors. Lamb’s interviews were simple, straightforward, and allowed the guest answer without bullet-points or the oft-too-brief time allowed on other morning shows. What was more important that his questions was the fact that Lamb read each book prior to the interview. And he listened intently to their answers. You could see it on television or when he met with people - he listened.
This was one of the inspirations for the podcast I created nearly five years ago when I was the director of the US Naval Academy Museum. The Preble Hall Naval History podcast was a direct reflection of what I learned from watching Lamb’s Booknotes. The pod was under an hour. I tried to the best of my ability to ask general questions of the guests as well as many of the books or articles prior to each interview, failing in only a few because of time and duties. I tried to listen.
(Photo: The Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University)
What Lamb has done with such a lengthy career in Washington is highly unusual. He stayed above the political fray. He never raised his voice in anger. He was always respectful of his guests. He had a simple idea to show Americans and the world how our government worked or didn’t. But he let the viewer make the decision. And C-SPAN, to the best of my knowledge, has never had a major controversy - certainly a testament to the individual who created and cultivated the culture of the organization.
We need people like Brian Lamb inside or outside government who played no side in constant barrage of hyper-partisan politics. With his calmness, stability, intellectual curiosity, and quiet perseverance, this was the type of person who served America well with C-SPAN, but I’d like to think this was the kind of person America could have used as president. I don’t know what his politics are, and in this case I would not have cared since the demonstration of his character would have been sufficient to trust his judgment.
Having spent so much time in Washington, I sometimes bumped into him, at a coffee shop or the cafeteria in the basement of the Dirksen Senate Office Building as he sat alone at a table eating a baked potato and broccoli. No frills, even with a meal.
I had a chance to spend some time with him when he spoke to a colleague’s class in the Political Science Department. He was the same in person as we came to know him guiding the day on the Washington Journal.
To paraphrase Timothy, Lamb fought the good fight, he finished the race, he kept the faith. But it is a longer quote I think of that applies to Lamb and that idea he had so long ago and what it has reaped. He was one person with no political or economic power. Yet he achieved so much and he did it in a way that reflected his own character:
“I am only one,
But I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
Edward Everett Hale
Thank you, Mr. Lamb.
Thanks for doing something and unknowingly inspiring so many people.