The coming crackdown on blogging

CNET News reports that Bradley Smith (one of the six commissioners at the Federal Election Commission) says that the freewheeling days of political blogging and online punditry are over. In just a few months, he 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.

Captain's Quarters reports In order for me to operate under those conditions, I will need to hire a lawyer and an accountant to guide me through the election laws and calculate my in-kind donations on almost an hourly basis. How many bloggers will put up with that kind of hassle just to speak their minds about candidates and issues? John McCain and Russ Feingold have effectively created an American bureaucracy dedicated to stamping out independent political speech, and the courts have abdicated all reason in declaring it constitutional.

Please contact your representative or Senator in Congress to get this terrible infringement on free political speech reversed. When the American government threatens to prosecute people for simply speaking their minds, we have truly lost our way.

Michelle Malkin reports Joshua Claybourn of In the Agora analyzes the campaign finance law absurdities and First Amendment infringements on bloggers here and Winfield Myers is on the same wavelength and discusses it here.

Professor Bainbridge says the oddity of campaign finance regulation is that we have ended up in a place in which pornographers apparently have greater constitutional protection than political bloggers. It's like we live in the First Amendment's Bizzaro World.

You can email John McCain here and Russ Feingold here. Please let them know that some of us still believe in free speech.

Reader Gary at RightWingNutHouse wonders if this could backfire Or it might be wedge that begins the reverse some of the ridiculous campaign finance laws. The internet is too dynamic to regulate this way.

Cut on the bias said I called my US Senators as soon as I learned of this, and I'll be calling my representative soon. I encourage all of you to do the same. In fact, I encourage each of you to contact your Senators, find out who on their staff handles these issues, and talk to them immediately. Follow it up with an email or letter with more details. If you do track them down, and you have a blog, list the name of the contact on your blog and let me know (biasblog -at- hotmail.com) - I'll link you here so we have a central resource to find out who to contact. and lists Alabama contacts for Senators and Representatives.

I hope everyone is wrong about this being a significant problem, but the MSM certainly is upset at bloggers, so they may be pushing it.

Update:

CQ has posted a An Open Letter To The United States Senate that I urge readers to check out, and use as a start for a letter you write to your Senators and Congressmen.