Feds reluctantly decide to not deprive bloggers of 1st Amendment rights

I wasn’t going to blog at all this weekend.

I should have known better, because I knew that there was going to be some action this weekend on the efforts by U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood and his buddies in the Democratic Party to regulate political commentary and information on the Internet.

The Federal Election Commission is under court order to regulate campaign spending on the Web. Some members of Congress were poised to take a another vote on the Online Freedom of Speech Act which would have prohibited the FEC from requiring bloggers to file financial disclosure documents if they engage in “political” activity like linking to candidates’ Web sites. The first attempt failed, thanks in part of LaHood’s “no” vote.

In what is being described as a compromise, the FCC released revised regs that will require candidates to include on their campaign disclosure statements how much money they pay bloggers to place ads on their sites. Politicians already have to inform the FEC of all the money they pay to buy ads on television, radio and newspapers. The bloggers themselves will not have to file anything, although it’s possible that the Internal Revenue Service might come knocking on some doors.

A Washington Post article on this development assures us that “leading advocates of the blogger community” are quite happy with the rules because they will leave bloggers “free to support and attack federal candidates, much as newspapers are allowed.”

That’s funny, I was under the impression that political commentary was a right guaranteed me by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Silly me.

As I previously reported on this site, I announced my refusal to comply with any regulation that tried to regulate what I place on my blog. I am pleased that I won’t be going to jail — at least not for this — but I still resent that so many people had to go to so much trouble to keep a judge and a six political appointees put an end to the free discussion of politics on the Blogosphere.

Hat tip: Murrel.