Bloggers don't fall under campaign rules

Submitted by acohill on Fri, 11/18/2005 - 10:29

SlashDot has a long discussion thread about an opinion issued by the Federal Election Commission that "bloggers are journalists." The ruling exempts bloggers from having to file lenghty reports and paperwork to meet the McCain-Feingold campaign laws. As Slashdot points out, the ruling indicates that bias in reporting does not automatically mean a blogger is NOT a journalist.

If this seems like hairsplitting or stating the obvious, it is nonetheless important because those that argued bloggers should be regulated based their argument in part on the notion that they were biased towards one position or another. What the FEC is saying is that the mere fact of having an opinion that leans politically left or politically right does not mean you immediately fall under campaign finance laws.

The FEC seems to be trying to do the right thing. What is disturbing is that the issue came up at all. Trying to regulate the right of individuals to express an opinion on the Internet is just wrong, and dreadfully so.