Net Gain on Campaign Finance Rules

NET GAIN ON CAMPAIGN FINANCE RULES
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: E. J. Dionne Jr]
[Commentary] The new FEC rule is not that complicated, but it did involve some careful balancing. The commission, under pressure from a court decision, decided that paid advertising on the Internet should be subject to the same regulations as paid advertising on television, radio or in newspapers. The restrictions on the use of unregulated "soft money" that apply to the old media would apply to the new media, too. At the same time, bloggers won what they had long sought: exemptions from regulations on what they can say that are akin to those that apply to what is now quaintly called the "old media." For bloggers, it was a Let Freedom Ring moment. The decision could be looked at as a classic political compromise: Campaign reformers got something they wanted (the Web would not be allowed to become the loophole that ate all campaign finance regulations), while bloggers got something they wanted (freedom to inform, opine, fulminate and enrage, i.e., to speak their minds). But the decision was better than your usual split-the-difference Washington sausage-making because it acknowledged that two serious principles are at stake and because it sought to make sure that regulations would be applied uniformly across media outlets. The two principles are free speech and the ability of our democratic political system to protect itself from corruption. That's why Congress should resist any bill that would overturn the FEC's shrewd ruling and let money slosh around freely on the Internet.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/03/AR200604...
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