Federal Elections Commission starts looking at rules for blogs
see "FEC treads into sticky web of political blogs" (From Chicago Tribune, 6/1)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/chitribts/20050531/ts_chicagotrib/fectreadsintostickywebofpoliticalblogs
The FEC is looking at rules which would put political advertising on blogs on an equal footing with other political ads in terms of requiring disclosure of the funding source for the ads as well as disclosure of payments from candidates or campaigns to a blogger for writing or fund-raising.
Although I dislike the idea of blog regulation it may be better not to oppose something along these lines if it keeps the FEC from arguing that unpaid political writing counts as a campaign contribution.
It's hard to know whether FEC regulation of blogs would tend to forestall further regulation or simply open the Pandora's Box.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Rossputin on 06/01/05 at 09:51:52 am . Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. |
Yours truly
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06/01/05 @ 05:56:00 pm
Ross,
I'm going to have to go with Pandora's Box on that. The thing is, this won't really necessarily affect people like us. I can just as easily host my blog in Mexico or Canada as I can here in the US.
I fear for those people still using things like Blogspot or other systems letting people host for them. How many people will rather throw up their hands and quit instead of having to deal with the threat of legal action?