Media Exemption for Bloggers

In The Washington Post

Hat tip: Volokh COnspiracy



Money quote:

"Bloggers want it both ways," said Carol Darr, head of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University. "They want to preserve their rights as political activists, donors and even fundraisers — activities regulated by campaign finance laws — yet, at the same time, enjoy the broad exemptions from the campaign finance laws afforded to traditional journalists."

As opposed to traditional media people, who are never activist, never donate to partisan causes, and never, ever encourage others to do so?



Stating one's opinion is, or should be, protected under the First Amendment (or at least it was until McCain-Feingold)



All Americans are free to donate to political campaigns to the limits of the law. If this changes and those in the media are prohibited from donating, we're going to see a lot more reporters in jail.



If positively slanted stories in the media do not encourage donations to a candidate or cause, and negatively slanted ones do not encourage donation to the opposition, it's news to me, as well as to every person over the age of 6 who has paid any attention to the legacy media. How many studies have been done on media influence of public opinion again? If our local paper at at 440,000 papers sold per day, is not many magnitudes more influential than me with my perhaps 150 or so free page views per day, then I should be getting rich charging for my content. Quickly, because I'm more influential than the product of a multi-million dollar publishing empire. Checking the Ecotraffic, that puts them at nearly three times the unique page visitors to Instapundit. To further reductio this ad absurdem Wall Street Journal sells 2 million papers per day, and USA today sells 2.6 million, and if any online magazine or blogger is in that league of influence, they should be a billionaire by this time next year.



I realize it's not truly a size issue. My point is that if you are looking for ability and intent to influence the political process, reporters and editors at the local rag have more ability to influence local opinion by the truly accidental misplacement of a comma, than I or most online individuals do exerting our utmost strength. And the fact that they do intend to wield that influence, and they do spend more time than I possibly can sharpening and polishing the influence each particular story will have, has been extensively documented. Furthermore, even openly partisan media outlets share the media exemption. Me, I ducked the issue by converting to an online magazine from a blog. Only the label has changed, after all, and I'd just rather not have the fight over the label. But I have huge respect for bloggers such as Captain's Quarters, who have vowed not to convert, and I'll be behind him all the way and donate money to the extent of my ability. He's volunteered to fight so that hopefully I and others won't have to. The least I can do is stand with him to the limits of my ability. If I ever read he needs money in defense of this, I will donate as much as I can afford, and do anything else he asks in support, regardless of the fact that I don't think he has any knowledge that I or Searchlight Crusade even exist.