Via the first-class Matt Drudge:
The Federal Election Commission decided Monday that the nation's new campaign finance law will not apply to most political activity on the Internet.
In a 6-0 vote, the commission decided to regulate only paid political ads placed on another person's Web site.
...Bloggers would be entitled to the same exemption from the campaign finance law that newspapers and other traditional forms of media receive.
"There will be no second class citizens among members of the media," Toner said.
Theree are so few things upon which the radical right and reasonable left (which is everyone to the left of the Cliff of Insanity) can agree, but this is one. It warms my heart.
And no, you can't have my beer.
Jake
Posted by: Jake - but not the one | March 27, 2006 at 01:50 PM
I was preparing your defense if this hadn't gone through.Unfortunately, I could only have gotten off on a First Amendment "technicality" so I'm sure you'd have preferred I not file it and let you dangle over an expensive and stressful criminal law pit for years..Oh, well.........
Posted by: clarice | March 27, 2006 at 01:56 PM
Free at last, free at last, free at last.
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Posted by: kim | March 27, 2006 at 04:57 PM
Very welcome decision, although I am not real happy with the FEC even being involved.
But I wonder (polite way of throwing a question out where lawyers might comment) whether recognition by the FEC of blogs as media entities might have some impact on any future case of, say, plagiarism? Instapundit linked an interesting account by Larisa Alexandrovna of how the AP plagiarized her article and research, then told her, “we do not credit blogs”.
Per Alexandrovna at the Huffington Post, “We contacted an AP senior editor and ombudsmen both and both admitted to having had the article passed on to them, and both stated that they viewed us as a blog and because we were a blog, they did not need to credit us."
Posted by: Dave in W-S | March 27, 2006 at 05:18 PM
Wait, isn't copying your schoolmate's work plagiarism?
There really is a madness in the land.
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Posted by: kim | March 27, 2006 at 05:32 PM
I'm going to look into starting a blog on an offshore ISP and accept paid political ads.
No compromise with censors.
Posted by: richard mcenroe | March 27, 2006 at 09:58 PM
Yes, the only second-class citizens in the US when it comes to free speech are... well, the ordinary citizen.
Posted by: Christopher Taylor | March 28, 2006 at 01:28 PM
Congratulations Tom, on your elevation to the MSM! I know you'll enjoy the special constitutional privileges and legal exemptions that come with that terroritory. You may now lift material freely from other bloggers, douse your foes with slander from anonymous sources, reveal classified information, and pimp for the candidate of your choice without regard for the consequences.
Best prepare yourself for stiff competition on the political front though, as I predict an explosion of fully funded campaign bloggery, filthy lucre to be laundered, pressed and folded by the nearest 527.
Posted by: JM Hanes | March 29, 2006 at 03:06 PM
Better to be never heard of. Then your ideas can be spread without restriction or self harm.
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Posted by: kim | March 31, 2006 at 09:40 AM