New Proposed FEC Regulations
Captain Ed reports on the FEC’s proposed regulations of the Internet, linking to this Washington Post article. Ed appears to believe that the proposed regulations are innocuous:
The only restriction we will have is on our advertising, which must carry a disclaimer of some sort in order to avoid allegations of coordination. This is a silly requirement for television ads, one that reduces the last ten seconds to the kind of speed-freak babbling that we have to hear on car commercials and loan advertisements.
I am less confident than Ed that all is well. I am going to wait until I see the regulations themselves. As most of you know, I am very suspicious of the concept of possible FEC regulation, and I took a firm stand on it last year, saying here:
If the FEC makes rules that limit my First Amendment right to express my opinion on core political issues, I will not obey those rules.
Dozens of other bloggers joined me in this pledge.
I think there is still potential for concern, though I won’t know how much until I see the regulations themselves. It sounds as though the FEC officials are trying to say the right things:
“My key goal in this rule-making has been to make sure that the commission establish clear rules to exempt individuals who engage in online politics from campaign finance laws,” said Chairman Michael E. Toner, a Republican.
“We tried to craft a regulation that would allow the maximum amount of freedom for people as possible,” said Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub, a Democrat.
Sounds good in theory. But the devil is often in the details:
Most bloggers, individual Web users, and such Web sites as Drudge Report and Salon.com are exempted from regulation and will be free to support and attack federal candidates, much as newspapers are allowed.
“Most”? And how will the government decide just which bloggers will not be allowed to support and attack federal candidates??
“Generally, it’s in line with what I think bloggers ask for,” said Jerome Armstrong, the founder of the liberal blog MyDD, an adviser to the Howard Dean for president campaign in 2004 and currently an adviser to former Virginia governor Mark R. Warner’s political action committee. “They give bloggers the media exemption.”
Ah, the “media exemption” . . . otherwise known as asking our masters for permission to speak. You all know how I feel about that.
We’ll have to see the actual regulations before we can breathe easy. Even if they don’t regulate blogger speech now, it should concern us all that the government even claims the authority to regulate our speech — even if it isnt yet exercising that so-called authority.
It would be interesting to get a glimpse at the internal debate of the FEC. How many commissioners argued for stricter regulations and how close was the vote.
Even if the regulations turn out to be everything that has been reported, there is nothing to say that they will not be changed in the future.
I am proud to be one of the many bloggers who joined you in your pledge, and have made it a permanent part of the banner on my site.
Stephen Macklin (4ea65b) — 3/25/2006 @ 4:18 pm