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Two (brief) observations on the news
Published on December 7, 2006
Category: Press
Journalists can say a lot in just a few words. This is a blessing and a curse. Sometimes journalistic conciseness distills the truth. Other times, brevity obscures important issues. On Tuesday, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, respectively, provided examples of each. Click the headline to read more.
Any Given Tuesday (On the Road to the Tuesday They're Focusing On)
Published on November 23, 2006
Category: Political Committees & 527s, Press
There is instrumentalism in reform. Who will win, and who loses, is calculated and anticipated, but ultimately unknown.Perhaps the events of a single Tuesday can indicate what may happen 100 Tuesdays from now. Click on the title to read more
Journalists should avoid cliches like the plague
Published on November 17, 2006
Category: Press
Is the right of potential candidates to consider carefully whether to run for the most powerful political office in the world a "tired cliche?" It is according to a new column from the Associated Press, ominously titled "With toes in water, hopefuls hide funds".We think the "tired cliche" is campaign finance reporting that misrepresents the law and evinces a reflexive skepticism towards any unregulated political activity.Click the headline to read more.
Is Air America an Illegal Campaign Committee?
Published on October 26, 2006
Category: Press
Air America, the liberal talk radio network, recently declared its bankruptcy. Unremarked upon, however, is the prospect that Air America was merely "circumvention" of the campaign finance laws. And, if we accept the premises of major campaign finance "reform" organizations, perhaps not even legal circumvention, at that. As CCP Chairman Brad Smith and SUNY-Binghamton Professor John Lott note in this column in today's Washington Times, &qu
Joyce Foundation/Wisconsin News Lab Report: Where and How Should Voters Get Their Information?
Published on October 14, 2006
The Joyce Foundation, working with the University of Wisconsin NewsLab, has released a report highly critical of the coverage - or really the lack of coverage - that local news gives to elections and campaigns. The Joyce folks are very disturbed by this: Vice President Lawrence Hansen informs us that, "The failure of local television news to foster and encourage informed citizen participation in the political process is scandalous." At the same time, however
Seeing Red (and Blue): News Coverage in Political Hue
Published on September 27, 2006
Category: Press
Is media bias real? Milyo and Groseclose think it is... . And, if so, what do we do? CCP Academic Advisor and University of Missouri professor Jeffrey Milyo joins UCLA professor Tim Groseclose to consider the question in the latest edition of Critical Review. Click on the title to read more.
The License in Licensing
Published on September 12, 2006
Category: Enforcement, Internet Regulation, Press
Mr Carlson: I had one of my disc jockeys, Dr Johnny Fever, give me the lyrics to a song. He wants to know if you'd let him play that song on the air. Dr Bob, reading: "Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try. No hell below us, above us only sky. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too. Imagine no possessions[?] Imagine all the people sharing all the world[?]" That sounds like communism to me: if there's no heaven, and no religion, then, I assume, no God. Mr Carlson: There's not a
Can America Survive Half Censored/Half Free? Thoughts on "The Path to 9/11"
Published on September 11, 2006
CCP Chairman Bradley Smith offers some provocative thoughts on efforts to censor the ABC docudrama, "The Path to 9/11," and notes that demands to censor political speech - which are moving ever closer to the institutional press - are unleashed and supported by campaign finance "reform."
Reporter Alert: The New York Times and a "Grassroots" Lobbying Exception
Published on August 28, 2006
Category: Contributions & Limits, Enforcement, Lobbying, Other, Political Committees & 527s, Press
The Federal Election Commission is poised this week to consider crafting a regulation providing a limited grassroots lobbying exception to McCain-Feingold's 60 day pre-election limitations on broadcast advertising that mentions a candidate. The New York Times has an editorial on it, but it's not one from which a person could actually learn anything. In fact, like so many Times editorials, it helps to explain why the more people read newspapers, the less they know about campaign finan
CCP, Cato and IJ: Washington Radio Jockeys Case
Published on August 3, 2006
Category: Contributions & Limits, Press
Bob Bauer asks what silence says about the reform agenda in the San Juan County Radio Jockeys Case and mentions CCP along the way.
