I found this to be totally intersting considering all that is going on the past few days.
Republicans on FEC: Blogs May Be Regulated
3 Mar 2005
Federal Election Commissioner Bradley Smith stirred the blog pot by suggesting
that blogs might be treated very differently in the next elections, according to
CNET. The FEC opted not to regulate internet coverage of the election in a 2002
decision, but Smith and two fellow Republican commissioners say that this may be
revisited. Oddly, Smith suggested that writing about candidates and linking to
various campaign materials may constitute a contribution, putting blogs under
campaign finance scrutiny - an opinion that would be readily dismissible, had it
not come out of the mouth of one the FEC commissioners. Smith admitted that the
bi-partisan commission (not non-partisan) saw this as a partisan issue, with
Democrats staunchly against blog regulation. When asked what sorts of behaviors
might be regulated, Smith told CNET, "We're talking about any decision by an
individual to put a link on their home page, set up a blog, send out mass
emails, any kind of activity that can be done on the Internet."
Regulation of blogs may find a higher standard of First Amendment scrutiny, as
blogs differ from traditional media in that they typically consist of opinions
of individuals. Recent campaign finance reforms were interpreted by the FEC as
skipping over the Internet, which provided a small spending loophole to
campaigns, but that hole - likely to be closed - had more to do with paid
advertising rather than personal expression.
