In an interview with CNET, FEC commissioner Bradley Smith discusses possible effects of impending internet regulation on bloggers. Smith notes that if bloggers reproduce any of a campaign’s material (think of the ubiquitous GeorgeWBush.com news feeds on blogs in the 2004 campaign), it could constitute a violation of Campaign Finance Law:
If Congress doesn’t change the law, what kind of activities will the FEC have to target?
We’re talking about any decision by an individual to put a link (to a political candidate) on their home page, set up a blog, send out mass e-mails, any kind of activity that can be done on the Internet.
Even though such activities as blogging and e-mailing friends about a candidate are unpaid, the value to the campaign could be quantified—after all, opinions have value.
RINO-extraordinaire John McCain’s efforts to curb free speech have already gone too far. The ridiculosity of counting the voicing of personal opinions as a campaign finance issue is magnified when you consider just how far such thinking could be extended. What’s next? Will any act of political discussion have to be considered as financial aid to a campaign?
Now that this has turned out to be just another fairy tale, it’s not as much fun to blog, is it? I guess that’s why you haven’t posted the statement from the Campaign Legal Center.
Greg,
I’d hardly say that a statement from a pro McCain-Feingold closes the book on the matter.
While a prohibition on political blogging would indeed be difficult to imagine, free-speech-suppressing laws like McCain-Feingold always have inherent dangers. Exception after exception needs to be made. I’m blogging about it to make sure that the exceptions are made in the case of blogging.