C-SPAN circumvents House blackout on sit-in coverage

C-SPAN turned to Periscope and Facebook Live on Wednesday for coverage of Democrats staging a sit-in on gun control on the House floor after GOP leadership cut off the chamber’s cameras.

House Republicans, who have control of the feed, vowed to keep it off until the House was back in session, saying Democrats are holding up normal business.

Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) began streaming the video from the floor after the cameras were shut off. C-SPAN tweeted multiple times that the cable channel does not have control of the feed. 

{mosads}In order to circumvent the blackout, C-SPAN began airing live video being streamed by House members.  

The Periscope feed cut out so CSPAN switched to Facebook Live. pic.twitter.com/TKg6hC8DAm

— Peter Sterne (@petersterne) June 22, 2016

C-SPAN has no control over the U.S. House TV cameras. Now showing a @periscopeco from @RepScottPeters. pic.twitter.com/L3JeHuSdL5

— CSPAN (@cspan) June 22, 2016

Washington Post media reporter Erik Wemple tweeted that this was the first time such thing had been done.

No official footage at the moment. We’ve been using Periscope & Snapchat when we can until they #TurnOntheCameras. https://t.co/1orQK97oEk

— Rep. Scott Peters (@RepScottPeters) June 22, 2016

C-SPAN spox says that this is the first time the network has streamed vid from the House floor via Periscope: https://t.co/PGfAQmj7N0

— ErikWemple (@ErikWemple) June 22, 2016

With official broadcasts suspended in the House, we’ve created a channel to follow #NoBillNoBreak on #Periscope live pic.twitter.com/1xM0QGqvzh

— Periscope TV (@periscopetv) June 22, 2016