Blogs subject to FEC regs
Seen at Jed’s place, it looks like Al Gore’s Internets will be subject to election laws:
The Internet’s freewheeling days as a place exempt from the heavy hand of federal election laws are about to end.
Late Friday, the Federal Election Commission released a 96-page volume of Internet regulations that have been anticipated for more than a year and represent the government’s most extensive foray yet into describing how bloggers and Web sites must abide by election law restrictions.
The rules (click here for PDF) say that paid Web advertising, including banner ads and sponsored links on search engines, will be regulated like political advertising in other types of media. They also say bloggers can enjoy the freedoms of traditional news organizations when endorsing a candidate or engaging in political speech.
Looks to me as though it’s not as bad as everyone first thought. In other words, the early hysteria over subjecting blogs to campaign rules was of the they’re trying to shut us down variety. Now, it looks as though they’re just regulating ads similarly to the way they do in other media. That said, I still don’t like it. Restricting speech is restricting speech.
March 27th, 2006 at 12:07 pm
That makes sense actually. The FEC already regulates campaign organizations when they take out TV, print, or radio advertisment. Adding blogs to the list of advertising vehicles is a natural extension.
This sounds a lot more like regulating the campaigners than the bloggers.
March 29th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
I think that all the money Soros pumped into elections under McCain-Feingold proves that it really doesn’t do much to impede big money from influencing campaigns. (How often massive paid advertising works is another question; the only times I’ve been influenced by a TV ad was when it got me angry at the people who made it.) The problem with M-F is three-fold:
1) It’s fuzzy about the distinction between paid politicking and opinion journalism. Hence we’ve had talk shows threatened with M-F violations, and if the FEC had been a little bit stupider, bloggers would be having the same problem.
2) It makes it much harder for people with a little money to take out paid political ads. For someone like Soros, it’s no problem to hire an office full of people to fill out all the paperwork, but for little guys, it’s a problem.
3) IT IS ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS GETTING AMERICANS USED TO HAVING TO REQUEST PERMISSION FROM THE GOVERNMENT TO EXERCISE THEIR RIGHTS. Right to keep and bear arms – sure, just fill out the registration, get the background check, go to the training course, pay the fee, and we’ll get back to you. Right to peacefully assemble – sure, but you need a parade permit. Right to freedom of religion – sure, but you still need a building permit, zoning permit, environmental clearance, etc., for your church. Right to free speech – sure, just fill out these FEC forms…