A Big Win For Bloggers
This is good news:
The Federal Election Commission decided Monday that the nation’s new campaign finance law will not apply to most political activity on the Internet.
In a 6-0 vote, the commission decided to regulate only paid political ads placed on another person’s Web site.
The decision means that bloggers and online publications will not be covered by provisions of the new election law. Internet bloggers and individuals will therefore be able to use the Internet to attack or support federal candidates without running afoul of campaign spending and contribution limits.
…Bloggers would be entitled to the same exemption from the campaign finance law that newspapers and other traditional forms of media receive.
“There will be no second class citizens among members of the media,” Toner said.
I’m glad it was unanimous.
Media | Mr. Bingley | 
March 27, 2006 1:34 pm
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Great. Bingley Unchained…
muwhahahahaha
Rhetorically speaking. We know NJ Sue would never unlock the real chains.
I thought Mr. Bingley was chained inside a cage? With a wireless connection to his laptop that can be cut off at any time.
My bad.
Why did I just flinch when I read “can be cut off at any time”?
That could have several different meanings, couldn’t it? Heh heh heh!
“…Bloggers would be entitled to the same exemption from the campaign finance law that newspapers and other traditional forms of media receive.”
I hate to interrupt all the fun, but I’d point that an “exemption” presumes a general condition from which one is being exempted. The media exemption to campaign finance “reform” is insidious, because it accustoms one to the idea that speech is something Congress–or an agency on its authorization–has any business regulating at all, and deciding who, as a matter of legislative grace and whim, is or is not a “legitimate journalist.”
This is thanks to the spineless and/or stupid legislators who passed it, the useless (at least in this context anyway) president who signed it, and the idiotic Supreme Court majority who essentially cut the heart out of the First Amendment by upholding it. There’s a special place in Hell for those who knowingly break their oaths.
You’re right Dave.
Thank McCain and Feingold, as a start.