-♻RetweetA Campaign of Deception
Sat, Mar 5, 2005 at 4:33:11 pm PST
Powerline’s Scott Johnson isn’t buying yesterday’s press release from the Campaign Legal Center saying that FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith’s concerns about FEC regulation of the Internet were “overblown.” In fact, Scott is calling this a campaign of deception; he makes a good argument that there is still plenty to worry about.
The press release basically argues that only paid ads will be covered for internet regulation. In fact, the FEC has already viewed paid internet ads as subject to regulation under FECA. Nowhere does Kollar-Kotelly’s opinion (click here) requiring the FEC to regulate the internet limit its reach to paid ads. See pages 132-156. Further, note that in the lawsuit Shays and Meehan also successfully argued that the FEC could not exclude unpaid broadcast ads from the reach of the law. See pages 153-56.
Once one sees that nothing in this decision limits its reach to paid ads, and that Potter and the McCain-Feingold sponsors favor regulating unpaid ads, the argument they raise falls apart, and all of Commissioner Smith’s points are, in fact, correct. The entire internet is up for grabs, and there is no reason that republication of campaign emails or posts, or advocacy of candidates on blogs, or links to candidates web sites, are not in serious danger. Although it is gratifying that some Democrats on the FEC are disavowing any intention to regulate blogs, it would be nice if Senators McCain and Feingold would do the same and if Congress would clearly undo the damage it appears to have done.
Frank says:
