Federal scheme to gag conservatives gets new juice

A warning by the Federal Election Commission chairman that "some on the left" want to restrict conservative media outlets on the Internet underscores a long history of various efforts that set out to limit the impact of money on politics, even the playing field for minorities and provide equal time to conflicting political arguments but end up squelching free speech.


FEC Chairman Lee E. Goodman said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that government officials are reacting to the growing power of conservative media, particularly independent news outlets with an Internet presence, by devising ways to curb the media's exemption from federal election laws that restrict corporations.

"I think that there are impulses in the government every day to second guess and look into the editorial decisions of conservative publishers," warned Goodman.

While Goodman did not specify "the impulses," there is a history of efforts that end up disproportionately curbing conservative voices through campaign-finance laws, broadcasting regulations and other means.

In the Examiner interview, Goodman, noting the success of The Drudge Report and others, said the right "has begun to break the left's media monopoly, particularly through new media outlets like the Internet."

In response, he said, some on the left are "starting to rethink the breadth of the media exemption and Internet communications."

Goodman said that protecting conservative media "matters to me because I see the future going to the democratization of media largely through the Internet."

"They can compete with the big boys now, and I have seen storm clouds that the second you start to regulate them," he said, "there is at least the possibility or indeed proclivity for selective enforcement, so we need to keep the media free and the internet free."

Curbing speech

Already, campaign-finance laws such as the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002 have curbed political speech by banning the broadcast, cable or satellite transmission of "electioneering communications" paid for by corporations in the 30 days before a presidential primary and in the 60 days before the general election.

In January 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that section of the law limiting the activity of corporations, saying: "If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech."

The case was brought by the grass-roots advocacy group Citizens United, which produced a movie called "Hillary" about then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, who was then seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

The FEC had ruled that video-on-demand distribution of Hillary would violate McCain-Feingold's restrictions on speech financed by a corporation before an election.

'Monitoring' newsrooms

In February, the reporting of a Federal Communications Commission proposal to dispatch "researchers" into radio, television and even newspaper newsrooms stoked controversy.

Ajit Pai, a commissioner with the FCC, warned in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that under the rationale of increasing minority representation in newsrooms, the FCC, which wields the power of issuing broadcasting licenses, would send the researchers to newsrooms across America to seek their "voluntary" compliance about how news stories are conceived and written.

He suggested the newsroom monitors might also "wade into office politics" looking for angry reporters whose story ideas were rejected as evidence of a squelching of minority views.

In response to a flood of angry opposition, the FCC insisted it had no intention of moving ahead with the plan.

Spokeswoman Shannon Gilson issued a statement explaining the FCC had proposed a study that was part of its effort to examine access to the media marketplace. A review of the study, including public comments, she said, raised concerns that prompted the removal of controversial questions. She insisted any suggestion "that the FCC intends to regulate the speech of news media or plans to put monitors in America's newsrooms is false."

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