Comments to FEC on Internet Campaigning Are In

Washington Post reports on the gist of comments to the FEC on internet campaigning regulations.

My position will not be popular with fellow bloggers, but I do believe that if a blogger is paid to blog by a campaign, that should have to be disclosed -- just like real world political activities.  Now, if the blogger is taking money solely to run advertising, that's a different story -- the ad itself should carry the disclosure that the campaign paid for it.

Total exemptions for the Internet clearly are not in the spirit of current law.  The only way to have fewer regulations online should be to have fewer regulations on traditional campaign activities -- something I'm quite open to discussing.

Comments

[Mike Krempasky]

"My position will not be popular with fellow bloggers, but I do believe that if a blogger is paid to blog by a campaign, that should have to be disclosed -- just like real world political activities. "

My apologies, but you've misunderstood the law. No one "offline" has to disclose such things. The campaign - the "spender" is under the onus of regulations, not the recipient. To force bloggers to do so would immediately make them the ONLY regulated recipient of funds.

Sure - bloggers ought to disclose. That's a far, far cry from saying we ought to force them through the power of law to do so.