Democrats Vote to Suppress Bloggers

news clipped by DreamOfPeace on November 3, 2005 - 3:31pm
CNET
Democrats defeat election-law aid for bloggers

In an acrimonious debate that broke largely along party lines, more than three-quarters of congressional Democrats voted to oppose the reform bill, which had enjoyed wide support from online activists and Web commentators worried about having to comply with a tangled skein of rules.
...
The Federal Election Commission is under court order to finalize rules extending a controversial 2002 campaign finance law to the Internet. Unless Congress acts, the final regulations are expected to be announced by the end of the year. (They could cover everything from regulating hyperlinks to politicians' Web sites to forcing disclosure of affiliations with campaigns.)

http://tinyurl.com/dwb3m

I'd like to know what other people think about this. I'm more concerned about misuse of the rules to regulate the free flow of political discourse than I am about anything else.


login or register to post comments
pyrrho's picture
exceptionalism
Comment by pyrrho posted November 3, 2005 - 8:25pm

personally, I've been most worried about the exceptionalism. What a surprise, left and right... blogs agree... "don't regulate us... that's for other people... we are beyond rules".

Kos is able to work with Redstate... not on anything else mind you... oh no, never work with the enemy... except wait --- it might affect the bottom line.

I'm concerned about the exceptionalism of the arguments... kos has dkos as a for-profit organization, using loads and loads of free vollunteer labor to make a living and fund non-political businesses as well... and that is supposed to mean that CORPORATIONS should get breaks from rules... on the web. Not because corporations deserve it in general, but because dkos is one.

But should dkos be a for-profit? Does that serve OUR purposes for dkos... or mainly kos'?

I don't trust the blogs on this at all.

If it applies to newspapers, it ought to apply to blogs.


(1)
login or register to post comments
bayprairie's picture
heres what i think.
Comment by bayprairie posted November 4, 2005 - 4:32am

heres what i think.

i think kos is a political site. he ought to be regulated by the government when election time rolls around.

and so should red state.

and so should myDD (ESPECIALLY MyDD) and the list goes on and on. and so should anyone that has any business at actBlue and whatever similar organizations the dominionist fundies use.

thats my 2cents.

call in the feds, these are POLITICAL PARTY SITES.

kos is all about raising money.

regulate him.


(1)
login or register to post comments
I agree with both of you on dkos/drudge
Comment by DreamOfPeace posted November 4, 2005 - 11:06am

but I'm concerned about it spilling over to sites that are genuine "citizen blogs"...this one for instance.

I guess it's out of our hands now. We just have to wait and see how it is going to be enforced.

(1)
login or register to post comments
I have the unalienable right to free speech.
Comment by Morgaine Swann posted November 7, 2005 - 2:30am

I won't compromise that for anything or anyone. The only regulation bloggers should tolerate is a requirement to disclose one's party affiliations if they actively raise money for a party or candidate. Other than that, Congress can f off.

Support the Women's Autonomy and Sexual Sovereignty Movements

(1)
login or register to post comments

Home
» "Democrats Vote to Suppress Bloggers"