The Attempt to Supress the Blogosphere

Some have weighed in on the FEC/Blogger mess. First are Senators McCain and Feingold. Seems the Senators say that it is not their intent, nor the intent of the FEC or Federal courts to interfere with private citizens on the internet. The statement issed by McCain and Feingold concludes with this:

"This issue has nothing to with private citizens communicating on the Internet. There is simply no reason - none - to think that the FEC should or intends to regulate blogs or other Internet communications by private citizens. Suggestions to the contrary are simply the latest attempt by opponents of reform to whip up baseless fears. BCRA was intended to empower ordinary citizens, and it has been successful in doing so. We will continue to fight for that goal."

Richard Hanson at The Personal Democracy Forum, gets into a bit of an in depth analysis of what types of blogs may be impacted by McCain-Feingold. He concludes with this:

"At bottom, the question is whether regulation of Internet-based political speech serves the goals of the campaign finance laws. If we are worried about corruption and circumvention of contribution limits, Internet-based activity does not even become a problem unless significant sums of money are involved. Even then, in some instances, Internet-based news and commentary is enough like mainstream media so that the media exemption needs to be extended."

Allen Mutter over at Reflections of a Newsosaur, ties the fortunes of journalists to those of the bloggers. Allen also lays out the threat. He sums up:

"With professional journalists nowadays as much at risk as citizen journalists, we all had better hang together. Or, as Benjamin Franklin said, assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Eugene Volokh, of The Volokh Conspriacy fame, goes into detail how blogger's speech should be protected. He brings up the proposed Free Flow of Information Act that is discussed on Michelle Maklin's blog. The proposed Act does not include bloggers.

We must not grow complacent, nor should we lay back and let others decide this issue. Keep up the fight, until we are assured that the right of free speech will not be stiffled. - Sailor