FEC: Blogs Are Free Speech
by Ryan Sager
Tue, 4 Sep 2007 at 4:24 PM
updated Tue, 4 Sep 2007 at 4:28 PM
In a just world, this wouldn't even be a headline: Federal Election Commission announces political blogs can say what they want without fear of fines or jail time.
The FEC is resolving two complaints against DailyKos.com, saying that political blogs are covered under the "media exemption" of our campaign-finance laws — even when they work aggressively to elect or defeat specific candidates.
The decision certainly cuts in the right direction — at least as far as partisans of the First Amendment are concerned — but that such a decision is necessary at all speaks to the broader corruption of our election laws. Originally aimed at stamping out outright bribery and quid pro quo corruption, they now threaten all speech in their path, including citizen speech about elections.
CORRECTION: Only one of the two complaints in this decision was against Daily Kos. Adam Bonin has a post up explaining the case here.
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