The Incumbent Protection Act is in full swing...

Host a talk radio program? Ever mention politics? If so, you'd better hire a lawyer. And an accountant. Because each and every political comment you made is now officially a campaign contribution that must be reported to a government agency. (The better to censor you, citizen!) And, of course, political commentary is subject to contribution limits; so once you have reported a few of those comments, you had better stop making them. And you had better hope that you value them correctly, because if you underestimate, wham! you're over the limit! If you're feeling dizzy already, the Public Disclosure Commission in Washington State has a 46-page PDF document outlining the reporting and registration requirements for speaking about politics.

Of course, for a talk radio host with an audience of thousands, that limit is going to whiz by so fast that he'd hardly get the first sentence out before that limit kicked in. But the ordinary guy who just talks with his friends and maybe runs a blog doesn't have anything to worry about, right?

Wrong: you're a "grass roots lobbyist" and required to register if you've spent more than $200 within a single month.
(Did you buy a computer especially for blogging purposes? How are your bandwidth charges?) And that's not even considering the federal rules.

And all the while, the Exempt Media pretend to be above it all... while the courts defend their status as the only media allowed to have a political voice.

This can't be happening.

This is America, land of the free.

Isn't it?

UPDATE: For clarity, the case involves Washington State campaign finance law, although the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act follows similar principles, and the FEC (following a court order) is already setting rules for this sort of thing.

Posted on 2005-07-07 21:40:43.0 by matthew@triggerfinger.org

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Lost in the shuffle

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Lost in all the coverage of the London attacks is this appalling story: Political talk isn't cheap, according to ruling By BILL VIRGIN SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Talk-radio hosts regularly discuss candidates and ballot issues, often with a particular point of...

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