Pry the Mouse from my Cold Dead Hand?
It seems that the FEC has decided to exempt blogs from regulation under the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform (CFR). In a ruling Friday, the FEC determined that Fired Up!, a Lefty blog, is entitled to the same free speech protections as traditional mass media.
Hannibal, at Ars Technica has more. The FEC’s ruling is here (pdf).
The substance of the ruling was that Fired Up! is essentially a traditional news outlet from the perspective of the law, so its activities do not fall under the purview of CFR regulation even though they’re overtly political. The FEC has also ruled that any equivalent online enterprise is entitled to the same protections as Fired Up!, which means that bloggers on both sides of the spectrum are safe (for now) from the specter of FEC regulation.
Over the past few months, bloggers of all stripes, both left and right, have united in fierce opposition to the possibility of being regulated by the FEC. While seeing Glenn Reynolds, Markos Moulitsas, Mike Krampasky, and Duncan Black fighting together conjures up visions of Independence Day style brotherhood, I haven’t been closely follwoing this story. Nor did I take the precaution of defining my blog as an on-line magazine.
Color me complacent, but I couldn’t (and still can’t) imagine the FEC chasing down every Blogspotter and LiveJournalist who ever linked to a political news story. The RIAA going after a twelve-year for demonstration purposes, I can understand, if not agree with. After all the RIAA is an eveil corporate assocation. But would the FEC do something similar? I can’t imagine it.
As Hannibal put it, Friday’s ruling was “predictable and appropriate.” I am delighted that I will not have to register my mouse.
Clenched fist salute: reader June
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