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Lawmakers in lights- TVMT to bring Montana Legislature into our living rooms

It’s a long way from C-SPAN, but the fledgling effort to bring the Legislature into Montanans’ living rooms will extend its reach to Helena and into some of the state’s largest cities for the 2003 session.

By BOB ANEZ of the Associated Press

TVMT, Television Montana, will be on the air Jan. 6.

The project, merely an experiment in the last legislative session, got lawmakers’ stamp of approval two years ago. Its official purpose is to provide "increased and unfiltered access to unbiased information about state government through gavel-to-gavel coverage of the legislative process."

But it has more lofty goals as well.

Sen. Duane Grimes, a Clancy Republican and advocate of the system, hopes it will improve the Legislature’s public image.

"It will allow Montanans to see what fellow Montanans do here as citizen legislators," he said. "The Legislature will be more highly regarded when they see what we do on a day-to-day basis."

Sometimes, Grimes said, citizens hear and read about only the contentious moments in the lawmaking process and many people don’t realize the level of cooperation. "People work together more than a lot of people think," he said.

TVMT will have more cameras, staff and coverage in the 58th Legislature.

Steve Maly, project manager, said three robotic cameras are located in the House chamber, two in the Senate and three in the Capitol’s largest committee hearing room.

One cart equipped with everything needed to televise a committee hearing will allow roving coverage of selected hearings elsewhere in the Capitol as well.

Stationary cameras will be assigned to a pair of committee rooms as a test for someday keeping minutes of all hearings on videotape.

Armed with 14 cameras, Maly expects to televise daily the House and Senate floor sessions and a pair of hearings. The programming will be available live on a closed-circuit system within the Capitol and to the local community access channel 11 for Helena cable TV subscribers.

In 2001, just floor sessions were broadcast live only within the Capitol.

Maly said two hours of floor session coverage will air from 2 to 4 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday on an AT&T commercial channel in Missoula, Billings, Butte, Great Falls and Kalispell. The local channel numbers will be announced prior to the session.

He also has plans for an hourlong "legislative digest" show that would highlight key happenings of the past week at the Legislature, to be aired on Montana PBS each Friday at 8 p.m. and again on Sundays at 3 p.m.

Outgoing House Speaker Dan McGee, R-Laurel, said he has "grave concerns" about such a program because of potential fights over editorial decisions on what gets included and left out.

But he’s a big fan of transmitting unedited coverage of legislative activity to the far reaches of Montana. That will make Montanans more familiar with and less apathetic about their government, he said.

"People would be able to hear what people actually said and not rely just on excerpts," McGee said. "Maybe they could actually see the deliberative process in motion and it will make more sense to them."

Maly has not given up hope of being able to distribute taped coverage to community access channels in Missoula, Billings and Great Falls.

The biggest drawback to spreading timely legislative coverage statewide is money. Transmission isn’t cheap. The cost of satellite time – up to $50,000 a month – is prohibitive and microwave networks already are fully booked by commercial TV.

Maly estimated it would cost $300,000 to $750,000 to reach all cable TV subscribers in the state, a pot of money he doesn’t have.

The 2001 Legislature provided a $60,000 loan to launch TVMT, to be repaid with money from a tripling of lobbyist registration fees.

The project has upgraded and added equipment using $200,000 in information technology money given to the legislative branch. A small control room east of the Capitol is crammed with electronic gear, including the joysticks that control the robotic cameras.

A special big-screen TV installed on the first floor of the Capitol will display simultaneous coverage of up to three events in the building, allowing visitors to the building to sample what’s happening each day.

The state has agreed to pay $68,000 to Helena Civic Television, which operates the local community access channel, to provide production staff for session coverage.

Kirsten Faubion, production and programming director, said a crew of eight will provide morning and afternoon blanket coverage. In Helena, the result will be eight hours of live television coverage each day.

"If there’s something going on, we’ll be there," she said. "We’re the perfect forum for it because we have the air time to offer for such a massive amount of material."

Television coverage has limits

HELENA – Viewers who tune in for state-owned TV coverage of the 2003 Legislature won’t see everything there is to see.

Although one of the project’s goals is to provide gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House and Senate floor sessions, that doesn’t mean the camera will catch an errant senator napping during debate or a bored representative perusing the newspaper as legislation is argued.

Steve Maly, project manager for Television Montana, said the law authorizing extensive TV coverage outlines what should and shouldn’t be aired.

The TVMT programming should "accurately convey the genuine pace and tenor of governmental activity," the 2001 statute says. But it also demands that camera angles and shot selection "ensure impartiality and respect for the decorum of the Legislature and other governmental institutions."

"We don’t want fancy camera angles, no panning in search of some embarrassing moment," Maly said. "Our direction is to follow the action, follow the voice."

Cameras will focus on the speaker during floor sessions, not wander through the rows of seats looking for an odd aside, he said. "Our job is not to catch somebody unawares, but to bring the action to the viewers."

Associated Press

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