How to get covered on C-SPAN

The influential conservative legal group, the Federalist Society, counts three sitting U.S. Supreme Court justices among its members, along with a good chunk of the federal bench. As such, it's a major player on Washington's rubber chicken circuit. Today's event was a panel discussion at the National Press Club on judicial elections, featuring Alabama supreme court justice Harold See Jr. and Indiana chief justice Randall T. Shepard.

Usually these Federalist lunch things cost twenty bucks ($15 if it's at Tony Cheng's, the venerable Chinatown institution), so I couldn't figure out why this one was on the house. That is, until I got there and discovered that C-SPAN would be broadcasting the event. No doubt most of the audience had a deep abiding interest in judicial independence issues, but the elderly woman seated next to me had no idea what the program was, suggesting that the food, not conservative legal theory, ensured the TV cameras would pan a packed house.