FEC to Consider Blog Regulation
The FEC recently announced that it is considering whether or not to require bloggers to disclose if they are being paid by political campaigns. While many bloggers feel the government is limiting their freedom of speech and unfairly targeting them, other feel that bloggers can act as a secret cover for political smear campaigns. In an article posted on Foxnews.com, Rick Hasen, a Loyola Law School professor is quoted as saying "I think there is a benefit for voters when they find out that something they find on the Internet is more of a paid advertisement than independent analysis." He later goes on to state "No one is talking about limiting speech or spending, just disclosure, and I think that is very valuable for voters to know."
Is this type of regulation limiting our freedom of speech? Would knowing if a blogger was being paid by a political campaign impact your opinion of the blogger and content?
2 Comments:
I wasn’t aware of this. This is a great way to give bloggers and their readers a way to distinguish between paid political advertising and citizen involvement in democracy. I hope that they differentiate between paid bloggers and grassroots volunteers because the volunteers are not disseminating advertising. It’s commendable that the FEC is merely advocating disclosure and not limiting what can or cannot be said.
IAMMEBLOG raises the question about whether or not our opinion of the blog’s content would be affected if we know that the author has been disclosed as a paid member of the campaign staff. In my opinion, it would depend on the content of the blog and its fit into the context of the overall discussion. I would think highly of the blog content that’s relevant to the discussion and negatively if it seemed that the blog was a canned campaign advertisement that’s being copied and pasted into thousands of online discussions across the internet.
my opinions differ greatly from separight.
Blogs are supposed to be our private space. Our online version of personal diaries. Who should actually determine what you write in your diary??
Yes, some people may be paid to promote certain parties. But it depends on what you write. Why should it be controlled??
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