The End of Political Blogging?

This is truly unbelievable:

In just a few months, [Bradley Smith, one of the six commissioners at the Federal Election Commission,] warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.

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If Congress doesn't change the law, what kind of activities will the FEC have to target?

We're talking about any decision by an individual to put a link (to a political candidate) on their home page, set up a blog, send out mass e-mails, any kind of activity that can be done on the Internet.

Again, blogging could also get us into issues about online journals and non-online journals. Why should CNET get an exemption but not an informal blog? Why should Salon or Slate get an exemption? Should Nytimes.com and Opinionjournal.com get an exemption but not online sites, just because the newspapers have a print edition as well?

Why wouldn't the news exemption cover bloggers and online media?

Because the statute refers to periodicals or broadcast, and it's not clear the Internet is either of those. Second, because there's no standard for being a blogger, anyone can claim to be one, and we're back to the deregulated Internet that the judge objected to. Also I think some of my colleagues on the commission would be uncomfortable with that kind of blanket exemption.

So if you're using text that the campaign sends you, and you're reproducing it on your blog or forwarding it to a mailing list, you could be in trouble?

Yes. In fact, the regulations are very specific that reproducing a campaign's material is a reproduction for purpose of triggering the law. That'll count as an expenditure that counts against campaign finance law.

This is an incredible thicket. If someone else doesn't take action, for instance in Congress, we're running a real possibility of serious Internet regulation. It's going to be bizarre.

You’ll have to read the whole interview to get the full background and the breadth of what this means for political bloggers, but the thing that I find most distressing about all of this is that the internet, and specifically blogs, have become an important resource for people who want to educate themselves about politicians and their platforms during campaigns. Our electorate is ignorant enough as it is; do we need to close off such a valuable conduit of information because a link to Kerry’s website could be construed as coordinated communications? Honestly, this could severely damage the grassroots movement that has flourished on the internet. That wasn’t supposed to be the point of McCain-Feingold.

In as soon as a few months from now, any of us could risk being hit with fines if we “improperly link to a campaign’s website.”

Welcome to the new America, where if you’re not willfully ignorant, we’ll do our best to try to enforce it.