The Missouri legislature is in session and the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on several bills last night. I’ve been told these hearings are in many ways more interesting and important than floor debate. So I took my little Marantz down to the capitol and recorded a couple of hours.
SB 5 would modify Missouri laws on child pornography (32 min MP3). SB 27 would modify regulations regarding sexually oriented billboards (24 min MP3). I found the testimony on these two bill pretty interesting.
As I listened to the testimony pro, and con… I kept thinking how easy it would be for anyone to record the hearing. Many of those testifying drove a long way to do so. The issues were obviously important to them. Why not record the testimony and put the audio of the full hearing on online.
Admittedly, these hearings can be pretty dry. You won’t see these on TV or hear them on your local radio station. But there’s an audience for these and the web is the perfect platform.
Don’t expect the people who conduct the hearings to make this happen. That might be a little more light and attention than they can stand. But any citizen could –I assume– walk in and record the thing. And share it with the world. Or a hand full of people who care.
The reporters that work so hard for our radio networks have –at most– three minutes to report all the top stories of the hour. A committee hearing like this will only get a few seconds…and our guys to a great job of boiling it down. But why not do both?
And if we can’t or choose not to, the public can pitch in. And I bet they will.
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