Good News for Bloggers and Online Activists

An article in The Washington Post is reporting that Friday night the Federal Election Commission agreed that bloggers and online activists will not be regulated in their political activities. The only regulation agreed on at this point is that candidates for federal office must pay for internet ads with money regulated by federal campaign law. The biggest surprise is that this was a pretty much unanimous ruling with Democrats and Republicans agreeing.

What does this mean for me and for many other NC bloggers? Pretty much, that we can speak out for or against any candidate without our support being considered a "paid" endorsement. That would have been a nightmare. While I get quite a few visitors to this blog, not that many are in North Carolina where my "endorsement" of a candidate would make any difference. (Trust me, I'm not delusional....my support carries absolutely NO influence!)

If they had decided to regulate blogger speech, the problem would be trying to put a price on something that can't be measured. This could mean that a candidate - any candidate I spoke out for might have to claim an inkind donation. In other words, they would be putting a price on something that is literally worthless.....and that would be a melluvahess.