Internet political bloggers got a big reprieve from the Federal Elections Commission March 23: the FEC has produced an outline of proposed new rules immunizing bloggers and Net-only news publishers from laws that could be construed as counting any of their political endorsements as campaign contributions.
The FEC is far from finalizing the proposals, with a public comment process on the matter due to be approved at their March 24 meeting. "These proposals," the FEC said announcing them, "are intended to ensure that political committees properly finance and disclose their Internet communications, without impeding individual citizens from using the Internet to speak freely regarding candidates and elections."
The FEC proposals include labeling political spam, which would ease a current rule that forces disclaimers when over five hundred bulk messages endorse or attack candidates; and, linking to campaign Websites—as many political bloggers like to do—won't be counted as "campaign expenditures" that could trigger McCain-Feingold campaign finance law provisions unless money swaps hands.
The proposals also call for immunizing those running their own blogs from their own computer or through hosts like Blogger.com and make no "contribution or expenditure" that must be reported as a campaign contribution; and, those who forward e-mail from political candidates from other McCain-Feingold provisions on such forwarding.
But the FEC is still trying to determine just how to proceed regarding individual bloggers. The commission hopes for Internet user input, saying it needs guidance on whether individual bloggers' work "should…be considered commentary or editorializing, or news story activity."
The issue of bloggers and e-publishers getting netted by the controversial McCain-Feingold package was raised when FEC commissioner Bradley Smith warned about a potential crackdown on bloggers in a published interview earlier this month.
