FEC treads into sticky web of political blogs

Yahoo News ^ | May 31, 2005 | Dawn Withers

[conservativecorner]

Web loggers, who pride themselves on freewheeling political activism, might face new federal rules on candidate endorsements, online fundraising and political ads, though bloggers who don't take money from political groups would not be affected.

Draft rules from the Federal Election Commission, which enforces campaign finance laws, would require that paid political advertisements on the Internet declare who funded the ad, as television spots do.

[saveliberty]

First Amendment, free speech, but only for the Liberal MSM.

[Nyboe]

The web is a virtual town square and represents the purest form of political speech. The government is explicitly excluded from interfering by the constitution, and I'm pretty sure the supreme court has said something to this effect about the web in recent years.

[vox_freedom]

The FEC certainly dislikes free speech, eh? And there are many in the MSM who also resent internet information flowing around them (e.g. without their control, left wing bias, and editing). Add to it DemocRAT and liberal reactions against the power of conservative talk radio, and it makes a veritable anti 1st amendment brew.

[SkyPilot]

I am sure this place had absolutely nothing to do with Sen Reid and the Democrats attack on bloggers.

[Steve_Seattle]

"But a court ruling last fall required the agency to include the Internet in its definition of public communications and to begin regulating activities there."

Does anyone know who the parties were in that court case? I'm curious about who wanted this to happen.

[Steve_Seattle]

"The fundamental presumption has changed from the Internet being unregulatable to now it will be regulated," said FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith.

The camel now has his nose in the tent. The Dems have long wanted to regulate the Internet to suppress unfriendly speech, and this is the start of it.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

What part of the phrase "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech" is unclear?

[Lazamataz]

Web loggers, who pride themselves on freewheeling political activism, might face new federal rules on candidate endorsements, online fundraising and political ads, though bloggers who don't take money from political groups would not be affected.........

............for now.

After all, we media elites are SICK and TIRED of all the free speech around here.

[CasearianDaoist]

Unless CFR is repealled we will see more of this no matter what happens here. Thomas was right about this. We are already far down the slippery slope. Watch the GOP cave completely here.

Without "internet media" we are right back were we started.

[Steve_Seattle]

"for now"

Exactly. Read (Leftist law prof) Cass Sunstein's book "Republic.com" (with laudatory dust jacket blurbs from Ted Kennedy and Hillary) to see some of the things the Left wants to do to regulate political speech on the Internet. This is just the beginning of a long march to try to suppress conservative political speech, or render it ineffective, expensive, or illegal.

[Steve_Seattle]

The Left is fundamentally anti-democratic and anti-free speech; this is a central plank of Marxism, to control the media. The last election made this even more clear to the Left, who saw how bloggers were getting in the way of their spin by exposing fake stories and/or bad reporting in the MSM. They are absolutely obsessed both with Fox and the Internet bloggers, and will do what they can to regulate both.

[Lazamataz]

Exactly. Read (Leftist law prof) Cass Sunstein's book "Republic.com"

How can I do that in a manner that does not give him one dime?

[KarlInOhio]

The interesting thing about the World Wide Web is that it is world wide. Can the FEC rule on foreigners blogging about US elections on foreign sites? How about Americans blogging on foreign hosted sites? Will American ISPs have to put up something similar to the Great Firewall of China to keep out any information coming for outside the US within 60 days of the election? If I run off a dozen copies of my blog on my laser printer and annoy my neighbors with them, do I suddenly go from being a blogger to a "respected member of the press" and thus unregulated?

[KarlInOhio]

How can I do that in a manner that does not give him one dime?

Hang out in a bookstore for hours while reading it or go to your library.

[cvq3842]

Thanks again, Sen. McCain, for helping get rid of that pesky First Amendment (SEVERE sarcasm alert)

[JesseJane]

~fyi ping~

[Steve_Seattle]

"How can I do that in a manner that does not give him one dime?"

Find it in a library or buy a used copy.

[redgolum]

Why don't they just tear up the rest of the Constitution and be done with it.

If the bill of rights no longer mean anything, then stop pretending!

[JesseJane]

~fyi~