FEC and McCain-Feingold - How Dumb Can They Get?

The Federal Election Commission is on the verge of making it illegal for bloggers to link to candidates websites or re-post the material from campaigns or even forward campaign e-mails. ED MORRISSEY at Captain's Quarters has a cogent post up regarding the FEC vs Bloggers:

"What's at issue is whether blog posts, hyperlinks, and excerpted text -- or in some cases, fully copied position points -- could be considered unpaid advertising. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out that it could. In fact, with blogs so easy to start and so difficult to trace, the FEC would have to look at them for the so-called unpaid advertising eventually. Otherwise, campaigns could easily start phantom blogs with anonymous authors to drum up traffic, or at least they could co-opt known blogs for that purpose without revealing the business connection. We saw some of that in 2004 already.

Some have said that the FEC won't have the personnel to track down these kinds of violations, even if they did make them illegal, a valid point. However, all that means is that they will rely on complaints to reveal violators -- a system that in itself provides the biggest danger to bloggers. People who want to sabotage a particular blogger only need to organize a swarm of FEC complaints about the blog; enough complaints, and the FEC will eventually make its way to investigating the blogger."

If a minority opinion can stop the death penalty for 17 year olds, surely enough bloggers can protect the 1st amendment. Surely the blogosphere of lefty, righty, centrist, independent, libertarian, socialist and others can find common cause for this one issue. Surely, we can find a way to allow each of us to exercise our right to use the modern version of pamphleteering and help everyone in the US exercise freedom of the press?

"What," you say, "Bloggers are not journalists?" Nuts! Are the print journalists going to be so protective of their "turf" that they think that they can't be held to the same standard as the rest of us? (of course they don't - they're special. -ed.) I would remind everyone of Martin Niemőller famous quote:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

I'm a strong supporter of the first amendment:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

I don't have the penmanship of John Hancock, so I'll just use modern technology to flame my signature.

NOTE: IF YOU WISH TO COPY THE JAIL DOOR GIF, YOU HAVE FREE RIGHT TO DO SO PROVIDING YOU DO NOT ALTER THE GIF EXCEPT FOR SIZE. YOU ARE REQUESTED TO CREDIT GMROPER DOT COM FOR THE ART WORK.

UPDATE: Michael Totten has an excellent posting here

UPDATE: "Doc Russia" has an eye opening blog also

Posted by GM Roper at March 5, 2005 08:07 AM | TrackBack