There’s a reason Benghazi Committee chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy offered Hillary Clinton the chance to testify in a private, closed hearing. And there’s a reason Clinton wanted to appear in an open setting, with the whole world watching.

The Benghazi Committee has made incremental advances in the public’s knowledge of the circumstances of the death of four Americans in Libya on September 11, 2012. But incremental advances — nuggets of information — don’t make for dramatic hearings.

In addition, public hearings can become sidetracked, for everyone to see. If one side decides to pitch a fit and bickering ensues, that is what millions of viewers experience. If the questions go off on a tangent, viewers see that, too. In any event, the purpose of the hearing goes by the wayside.