FEC Rules: Political Blogs Are Media
by Kevin Yordy September 7, 2007Political bloggers won a major victory this week in their quest towards mainstream acceptance and relevance. On 9/4, the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) ruled that political blogs are considered media, as far as US Electoral Law is concerned. Essentially, the FEC reaffirmed the right for political bloggers to exercise free speech with the same rights as any other media organization.
If the FEC officially recognizes blogs as a legitimate form of media, more and more candidates, campaigns, and interest groups will likely begin to come to the same conclusion. As the relevance and reach of the political blogosphere grows at a rapid rate, politicians will have an increasing and increasibgly difficult need to filter through the noise and get to the content that matters.
Of course a major difference between “traditional” media and blogs is that in the blogosphere, even the illusion of objectivity is absent. This FEC ruling is obviously a boon to the blogosphere, but “Publishing 2.0″ points out a potentially dangerous (and likely unsolvable) side-effect that could develop, if it isn’t already happening on a widespread but subtle scale.
