C Span

SAN FRANCISCO -- Jerry Springer for Senate? Why not? Ohio elected a senator who was farther out in space than Springer.Think how C-SPAN's ratings would soar.Think how entertaining impeachment trials could be, especially if senators could be given lighter chairs, ones they could throw.Think how enlightened the Senate could become on issues such as male lesbians, cross-dressing nudists and bosses who cheat on their wives with young employees while conducting foreign affairs on the phone.Oh, that's right.

Leonard J. Kerpelman hopes to become the C-SPAN of Baltimore's mayoral race.During the past few months, the former attorney and civic activist has been driving around the city with his video camera taping appearances by city mayoral candidates. The results will air for 13 weeks beginning today on Channel 5 of Baltimore Cable Access Corp.Kerpelman began the project last fall when his wife, Elinor Hoffman Kerpelman, ran unsuccessfully for state Senate. The two became frustrated that candidates need to raise large amounts of money to reach voters.

A day without violenceEVERY DAY should be a day of nonviolence. But a nation that records 20,000 homicides a year cannot expect to achieve such an impossible goal. Within our reach, perhaps, is one day of nonviolence -- a day on which homicide detectives will not have to open a new file.The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People deserves support for its National Day of Nonviolence on April 4, the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination and Easter Sunday.NAACP leaders hope no homicides occur that day, and no acts of "physical, verbal or emotional violence."

Drive time. Prime time.Brand name? C-SPAN.You can listen in the car, on the computer, or while shoveling snow. You can put it on a Walkman. Now, as easy as you roam the beltway, hear the unfiltered, raw material of government. Untouched by journalists. Listen, unaware of what color of tie Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon is wearing. Listen, and hear people clearing their throats, stuttering and, later, actually completing their thoughts. No antsy host butts in to commandeer the conversation.Since C-SPAN, the radio, took to the air just over a year ago, it has fast become the local medium of choice for people who can't or won't watch television.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is irrelevant! Stay out of my business, Washington.Did I just say that? Me? The guy who used to watch BOTH C-SPAN channels simultaneously? Read all the pundits religiously? Wouldn't miss all the Sunday morning talk shows? What happened to the guy who voted for all those people who wanted the feds to fix things?Was it just because I spent most of my life in Baltimore, minutes away from the Capitol? Maybe the proximity to where the action is made me feel a part of it, and therefore more supportive.

If C-SPAN, the cable TV network offering gavel-to-gavel coverage of Congress, sounds like an idea that's better in theory than in fact, then the idea of C-SPAN radio sounds like tedium redefined.The torture inherent in listening to Newt Gingrich or Richard Gephart speak is somewhat relieved by watching their faces. But without the picturesBut duplicating C-SPAN is not what WCSP-FM (90.1) is all about. C-SPAN is obligated to focus a camera on the House and Senate whenever they're in session.

A man charged with breaking into a home in Bolton Hill and one in Reservoir Hill has been linked to 28 other break-ins since November in which money and electronic equipment were taken, police said yesterday.Nathan Green, 32, of the 1100 block of McCulloh St. was arrested Tuesday in the 2300 block of N. Eutaw St. Police said Officer James McGee saw a man breaking into a home at that location.Police said Green has been charged with two counts of burglary in the Tuesday incident and a previous break-in nearby.

WASHINGTON -- Where did all the talking heads go?They aren't in the halls of the Brookings Institution -- the think tank is one darkened office after another, without even a pontificating intern to trip over.They aren't in the political journals -- some of those magazines are closed until September.And they aren't on C-SPAN -- the television network is airing month-old Senate hearings and hourlong features on the British Parliament.This is August. In Washington. A city that manufactures news.

EVEN THOUGH IT is located in Washington, many Baltimoreans tune into WDCU-FM at 90.1 for its superior jazz programming. Treasure every note, though. In a few months that station will go off the air. It will then reappear as an outlet for C-SPAN, which up to now has been known solely as a cable television operation that is devoted to broadcasting congressional hearings and other public affairs programs.Things could have turned out far worse. After the financially strapped University of the District of Columbia decided to sell WDCU, a commercial Christian broadcaster emerged as a likely buyer.

NEW YORK -- After months of controversy on Capitol Hill, the debate over the television industry's on-air parental guidelines is moving today to the viewers for whom they were intended:Three hundred families from Peoria, Ill., the town that is synonymous with Middle American values and market research, will rate the ratings in a televised, "Oprah"-style congressional hearing.The families -- who agreed to watch television closely last week to prepare for the hearing -- will tell moderator Sander Vanocur and the members of a House subcommittee what they think of the 4-month-old ratings system and how it helps -- or does not help -- them to screen out potentially objectionable programming.