{"id":792,"date":"2005-03-03T12:32:31","date_gmt":"2005-03-03T17:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/000af36.netsolhost.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/03\/03\/blogging_to_be_\/"},"modified":"2005-03-03T12:32:31","modified_gmt":"2005-03-03T17:32:31","slug":"blogging_to_be_","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/2005\/03\/03\/blogging_to_be_\/","title":{"rendered":"Blogging to Be Regulated?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a frightening development<\/a>. The Federal Elections Commission is considering treating blogs as political operations to be regulated.<\/p>\n

If a blog advocates for a candidate or links to her Web site, that could be considered a political contribution, the FEC contends, and bloggers would then have to calculate how much of a contribution that it. Once that limit is met, a blogger may then be prohibited from mentioning a candidate.<\/p>\n

A judge\u2019s ruling stated that \u201ccoordinated activity over the Internet would need to be regulated, as a minimum,\u201d according to this story.<\/p>\n

[B]loggers 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This FEC effort is an affront to free speech. Bloggers are not paid political operatives. And bloggers are not journalists. We\u2019re more like the guy on a soap box in the town square. If we want to rant about our favorite candidate, that\u2019s our right.<\/p>\n

This effort to regulate blogs will, I fear, find willing sympathizers in the press. Let\u2019s watch how the press approaches this story. Bloggers threaten journalists\u2019 control of the agenda. It\u2019s ironic, because while bloggers get credit for uncovering stories, they don\u2019t become stories until the MSM run with it. Still, the press views bloggers as interlopers on their territory. While journalists might not cheer on the FEC, they will likely sit back and silently welcome FEC control.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here\u2019s a frightening development. The Federal Elections Commission is considering treating blogs as political operations to be regulated. If a blog advocates for a candidate or links to her Web site, that could be considered a political contribution, the FEC contends, and bloggers would then have to calculate how much of a contribution that it.… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/griendling.com\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}