"Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barreI" is a quote credited to Indiana Congressman Charles Bruce Brownson (1914-1988). I suspect every United States President since George Washington has had his difficulties with the press. Congress also has had occasional problems with the press. In the past, that was simply considered part of the job and everyone just moved on. Well, things may be changing.
Yesterday's New York Times reported that President Obama held a ceremony to sign a bill promoting freedom of the press around the world and then refused to take questions from reporters. At a "news conference" with Felipe Calderón on Wednesday, he took only one question from the American media--Univision. So far he has avoided any questions on Tuesday's election results. It seems to be rather tight control of the press at a time when he says he is promoting freedom of the press.
Meanwhile, Congress is having its own freedom of the press issues. According to Ed Morrissey at Hot Air yesterday:
"Last week, a congressional hearing exposed an effort to give another agency--the Federal Election Commission--unprecedented power to regulate political speech online. At a House Administration Committee hearing last Tuesday, Patton Boggs attorney William McGinley explained that the sloppy statutory language in the "DISCLOSE Act" would extend the FEC's control over broadcast communications to all "covered communications," including the blogosphere."
The original purpose of the DISCLOSE Act was to require the disclosure of corporate and union political speech after the Supreme Court's January decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission held that the government could not ban political expenditures by companies, nonprofit groups, and labor unions.
According to Mr. Morrissey:
"The bill, however, would radically redefine how the FEC regulates political commentary. A section of the DISCLOSE Act would exempt traditional media outlets from coordination regulations, but the exemption does not include bloggers, only "a communication appearing in a news story, commentary, or editorial distributed through the facilities of any broadcasting station, newspaper, magazine or other periodical publication..."
This bill could be used to shut down any non-traditional outlets of political speech on the internet. Stay tuned.
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