[extropy-chat] FEC to regulate internet

Mike Lorrey mlorrey at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 13 22:22:59 UTC 2004


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041013/D85MHF6G0.html

Still think that voting for Kerry is good idea? Just wait until he gets
in office and his special interest buddies and their left wing media
get the FEC to clamp down on internet political speech. Mark my words:
there will be gnashing and anguish (or, more likely, apologia and
excuse making) from those who vote for him on this list. See the story:

"A recent federal court ruling says the FEC must extend some of the
nation's new campaign finance and spending limits to political activity
on the Internet.

Long reluctant to step into online political activity, the agency is
considering whether to appeal.

But vice chairwoman Ellen Weintraub said the Internet may prove to be
an unavoidable area for the six-member commission, regardless of what
happens with the ruling.

"I don't think anybody here wants to impede the free flow of
information over the Internet," Weintraub said. "The question then is,
where do you draw the line?"

Former Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean made the most
pronounced splash online when he stunned his rivals by raking in tens
of millions of dollars through Web-a-thons, a far cheaper fund-raising
method than traditional dinners and cocktail parties. And Internet
message boards, known as blogs, have become as common a place for
people to air their political views as talk shows and newspaper
editorial pages.

The Internet also is where political players do what they can no longer
do on television or radio.

The National Rifle Association, for example, has started an online
newscast and talk show to air its views on presidential and
congressional candidates. The Internet is exempt from a ban on the use
of corporate money for radio and TV ads targeting federal candidates
close to elections, part of the new campaign finance law that took
effect this election cycle.

The November Fund, an anti-trial lawyer group partly funded by the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce, is posting Internet ads criticizing Democratic
vice presidential nominee John Edwards, a North Carolina senator and
former personal-injury lawyer.

The FEC exempted such ads from the law's ban on coordination between
candidates and groups that raise or spend corporate money. Last month,
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly struck down the coordination
exemption, ruling that it "severely undermines" the law.

Fred Wertheimer, president of the campaign watchdog group Democracy 21
and member of the legal team that successfully sued to overturn that
and several other FEC rules interpreting the law, said campaign finance
laws should apply to the Internet because substantial amounts of money
are being spent on online at election time.

The laws may not always apply to the Internet as they would to other
venues, Wertheimer said, "but by the same token the Internet cannot
become a major avenue for evading and circumventing campaign finance
laws on the grounds that people just want the Internet free from
regulation of any kind."

Max Fose, a Republican Internet consultant who helped Arizona Sen. John
McCain, a sponsor of the new campaign finance law, raise millions of
dollars online for his 2000 presidential bid, is wary of the judge's
ruling.

"Whenever there's something new and emerging and it's still developing,
to place restrictions on it I think is going to hurt how political
candidates and elected officials look to use the Internet, to not only
be elected but look to get voters involved," Fose said."

=====
Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
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