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JournoList and the First Amendment
Published on July 21, 2010 11:30 AM
Category: First Amendment, Press
JournoList, the listserve discussion group of left-leaning journalists and academics founded by Washington Post columnist Ezra Klein, is back in the news for allegedly helping the Obama campaign to deal with the controversy surrounding Reverend Jeremiah Wright in the 2008 campaign. Michael Calderone of Politico first reported on JournoList in March of 2009, writing: For the past two years, several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wo
Another privileged speaker unaffected by DISCLOSE Act
Published on June 21, 2010 12:15 PM
Category: Disclosure, Press
Imagine if the DISCLOSE Act had passed several months ago, and were now in place. Now imagine if the following ad—let's say it were, hypothetically, Democracy 21 paying for the ad—had begun running today in Congressman Chris Van Hollen's Maryland district, where he has a Sept. 14 primary: "Announcer: Chris Van Hollen is leading an effort to pass reform legislation that is effective. He's being challenged by interest groups in Washington, D.C. who do not want
The Press Exemption saves J.D. Hayworth
Published on June 18, 2010 09:59 AM
Category: First Amendment, Press
Arizona media report that an FEC complaint filed against J.D. Hayworth and KFYI-AM has been dismissed by the Commission. The complaint alleged that by broadcasting Hayworth's talk-radio program, the station made an illegal contribution to his campaign. In which he happens to be challenging uber-reform Senator John McCain. The reports note that the complaint was filed by a former staffer to McCain. The Commission recognized that the programs fell within the statutory exemption for
The media exemption and a harbinger?
Published on May 7, 2010 03:55 PM
Category: Internet Regulation, Jurisprudence & Litigation, Press
Campaign finance fans will recall the regulatory battle over internet regulation after the signing of the McCain-Feingold Act. The FEC had never seen so many comments on one of its rulemakings. Bloggers everywhere were claiming that they fit within the "media exemption" to federal campaign law. Reformers were saying the media exemption should be limited to well-established media organizations.
... even so, Schultz might blame progressives like himself
Published on January 9, 2010
Category: Faulty Assumptions, Press
Monitoring Ed Schultz's MSNBC talk show for campaign speak does seem ridiculous. But the reason for it comes from policies by progressives ... like Schultz.
FOX, Lies & Videotape: debunking an internet myth
Published on November 3, 2009 11:00 AM
Category: Fairness Doctrine, Press
Much ado is being made about the supposed "war" between the Obama White House and FOX News. As the New York Times reports: Attacking the news media is a time-honored White House tactic but to an unusual degree, the Obama administration has narrowed its sights to one specific organization, the Fox News Channel, calling it, in essence, part of the political opposition. "We're going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent," said Anita Dunn, the White House communications
The Tangled Web We've Woven: What Weight to Give Precedent in Citizens United?
Published on September 14, 2009 05:45 PM
Category: Contributions & Limits, Jurisprudence & Litigation, Press
The Supreme Court has by now voted on Citizens United v. FEC and the justices should be writing their opinions. After a special oral argument last week, most observers were predicting a win for Citizens United in their battle to air "Hillary: The Movie," (or more realistically, for Citizens United's future political speech efforts.) The question will be how large the win is - will the Court overrule the a pair of recent precedents, Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce and McCo
Money also isn’t a free press…
Published on April 7, 2009 06:00 AM
Category: Faulty Assumptions, Press
The Center for Competitive Politics generally sticks with defending what we call the First Amendment political rights of speech, assembly, and petition, which means we rarely touch on the other two First Amendment rights, press and religion. Occasionally when politics intersects with these rights, such as regarding political endorsements by newspapers or religious leaders, we may comment but generally these other rights just fall outside our main areas of work. That said, the recent troubles of
Idiocy in Broadcast Journalism Awards
Published on December 5, 2008 03:00 PM
Category: Faulty Assumptions, Lobbying, Other, Press
Coverage of campaign finance has long been, well terrible, frequently if not usually less about enlightening or even informing the public than it is about misinforming the public. But the line of stories out today are some of the dumbest we've seen yet.I'll refer specifically to this report from CBS News, under the headline, "Big 3 Spending Millions on Lobbying: Auto makers drowning in red, but still spend millions lobbying congress," which tells us of the latest "scand
Defending Nancy Pelosi
Published on October 1, 2008 03:00 PM
Category: Faulty Assumptions, Press
The Center for Competitive Politics welcomes former FEC Commissioner David Mason as an occasional contributor to the blog. His first post follows:Put me down as opposed to most of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's political aims, but she deserves some defense from a front page ethics attack in today's Washington Times. The Times reports dramatically that "Pelosi's PAC pays bills for spouse's firm", referring to $99,000 in payments over the past 9 years. The problem is, there is
