[extropy-chat] FEC to regulate internet

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:
> --- Adrian Tymes <wingcat at pacbell.net> wrote:
> > --- Mike Lorrey <mlorrey at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > > "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.
> > 
> > Emphasis: campaign finance and spending limits.
> > They're regulating the money, not the 'net.  If
> you
> > aren't paid to give an opinion, this doesn't
> apply.
> 
> Paid by who?

The candidates and political parties, mostly.  I will
grant that this definition itself can be a source of
concern, though, and has long been a target for
exploitation by political activists.

> What separates a paid reporter with a
> bias from a party
> pundit with an opinion?

The source of funding.  One might wonder if Fox should
count as political, but for example, an Associated
Press editorial is a far cry from an official
statement by either the DNC or the RNC.

> Is Ann Coulter's opinion
> column going to be
> classified as regulatable political speech?

Depends.  Who pays her bills?

> What
> about that of any
> other pundit of any political stripe?

Same question.

> Meanwhile, Michael Moore's toxically false movies
> are not considered
> political speech by the courts.

Not *paid* political speech, because it wasn't funded
by the candidates or the parties.  The power of the
press belongs to those who own presses; in that sense,
the FEC is trying to regulate Democrat-owned and
Republican-owned presses.  (And technically
Green-owned, Libertarian-owned, and so forth, although
they tend to operate well underneath caps set up for
the big parties.)

Whether or not this is right is a separate question.
But let's ask the correct question, please - it is
not, as the subject implies, that the FEC intends to
regulate the entire internet, including the vast
majority that has nothing directly to do with
elections.  (Emphasis on "directly": for example,
while oil-company-funded studies of possibilities for
increasing oil production do unquestionably have
political consequences, they fall outside the FEC's
jurisdiction.)