Reply #20: Truthout did a piece... [View All]

[Tigress DEM]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/030705H.shtml

Blogger Alert:
Election Regulators Are Watching
By Anne E. Kornblut
The International Herald Tribune

Monday 07 March 2005

Politics on Internet is being reviewed.

<snip>

The six-member commission is divided evenly between Democrats and Republicans; their vote not to appeal the part of the judge's ruling dealing with Internet activity broke along party lines, with Democrats voting not to appeal.

Commissioners said they could consider several questions, including whether political Web sites were technically coordinating with official campaigns by posting links to a candidate's Web site, and whether partisan bloggers were making in-kind contributions by donating their expertise and computer equipment to a campaign.

By law, contributions of more than $1,000 or services of an equivalent value must be made public. Individuals are permitted to volunteer their time, and there is an exemption for newspapers, broadcast networks, magazines and other periodicals. It is unclear whether political news sites would meet the exemption test, or whether the commission would go beyond regulating Internet advertisements bought by the campaigns.

In an interview, Smith said he did not believe that the judge's ruling limited the panel to regulating only paid advertising on the Internet. "In theory, there's no reason why everything that goes on a blog advocating a candidate wouldn't be an independent expenditure and subject to regulation," Smith said.

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This is why I'm saying we DEMS take the highest road possible and blog only to get people educated on the ISSUES and who they have as choices.

When a candidate is hot on a certain issue and we direct people to an "information only" website that has no finance links it isn't a endorsement to finance the campaign, but simply a way to make people aware of who they are voting for and what those people stand for.