'Periscope' Shares U.S. House Sit-In With The World

Forget cable. Forget network news.

The information revolution has just subsumed it.

Today, the leadership of the House of Representatives, faced with a sit-in by Democrats demanding action on gun safety laws, turned the House cameras off. Normally, several video cameras feed the action in the House to CSPAN.  The House leadership is said to be hostage to the gun industry. They are not able to look a gun law in the eye. They don't want to risk damaging their cozy cash relationship to the NRA. The Dems, on the other hand, are appalled at the casual availability of almost every type of gun, and at the way, time after time, semi-automatic rifles are used to commit mass killings. They want guns only in the hands of the sane.

Where once this act of turning off the video might have been damaging to a demonstration, today it simply led to a re-routing around the blockage:

"In the absence of cameras, Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) broadcast clips on Twitter of members speaking. C-SPAN then broadcast Periscope and Facebook Live streams of the action."

"Up Periscope", Mr. Speaker.