NEOBuckeye
Ohio At-Large
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Gridlock! Futility! Awesome!
And people wonder why this country is in such sorry shape. Americans are afraid of our government, so we don't want it to work properly. What we need is the attitude of the French. In France, the government is afraid of the people, so it knows damn well that it had better work properly. Or else.
gramarye
In Exile
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NEOBuckeye wrote >>
Gridlock! Futility! Awesome!
And people wonder why this country is in such sorry shape. Americans are afraid of our government, so we don't want it to work properly. What we need is the attitude of the French. In France, the government is afraid of the people, so it knows damn well that it had better work properly. Or else.
Please tell me that the second paragraph of this was as sarcastic as the first ...
Bear
The woods
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gramarye wrote >>
From the majority opinion, via Volokh Conspiracy:
Thus, the following acts would all be felonies under §441b: The Sierra Club runs an ad, within the crucial phase of 60 days before the general election, that exhorts the public to disapprove of a Congressman who favors logging in national forests; the National Rifle Association publishes a book urging the public to vote for the challenger because the incumbent U. S. Senator supports a handgun ban; and the American Civil Liberties Union creates a Web site telling the public to vote for a Presidential candidate in light of that candidate’s defense of free speech. These prohibitions are classic examples of censorship.
That's what was at issue in the case: criminal penalties for saying "vote for Bob!" or "down with Bob!" Sorry, but that's not the way this country should work, and I'm disappointed that four justices (the dissenters) thought otherwise. If Bob wants to run for public office, he should have a plan for when the Sierra Club calls him a friend of strip mining, or when the NRA calls him soft on crime, for when the Club for Growth calls him a tax-and-spender, and for when United for a Fair Economy calls him a friend of plutocrats and oligarchs. That plan should not be "criticize me and I'll throw you in jail."
Well, technically, what was at stake was not the right to say "vote for Bob!" or "down with Bob!" People can say that all they want, until they're blue in the face, right up to the election. But they have to compete with other people and organizations, for airtime, rather than just buying it outright. If the Sierra Club wants to call Bob a friend of strip mining, precisely no one is stopping them from calling a press conference and doing so, just as no one is stopping Bob from calling a press conference to rebut those charges. That hasn't changed. What was at stake was their ability to amplify that message more than an organization that has less money than they do.
gramarye
In Exile
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Bear wrote >>
gramarye wrote >>
From the majority opinion, via Volokh Conspiracy:
Thus, the following acts would all be felonies under §441b: The Sierra Club runs an ad, within the crucial phase of 60 days before the general election, that exhorts the public to disapprove of a Congressman who favors logging in national forests; the National Rifle Association publishes a book urging the public to vote for the challenger because the incumbent U. S. Senator supports a handgun ban; and the American Civil Liberties Union creates a Web site telling the public to vote for a Presidential candidate in light of that candidate’s defense of free speech. These prohibitions are classic examples of censorship.
That's what was at issue in the case: criminal penalties for saying "vote for Bob!" or "down with Bob!" Sorry, but that's not the way this country should work, and I'm disappointed that four justices (the dissenters) thought otherwise. If Bob wants to run for public office, he should have a plan for when the Sierra Club calls him a friend of strip mining, or when the NRA calls him soft on crime, for when the Club for Growth calls him a tax-and-spender, and for when United for a Fair Economy calls him a friend of plutocrats and oligarchs. That plan should not be "criticize me and I'll throw you in jail."Well, technically, what was at stake was not the right to say "vote for Bob!" or "down with Bob!" People can say that all they want, until they're blue in the face, right up to the election. But they have to compete with other people and organizations, for airtime, rather than just buying it outright. If the Sierra Club wants to call Bob a friend of strip mining, precisely no one is stopping them from calling a press conference and doing so, just as no one is stopping Bob from calling a press conference to rebut those charges. That hasn't changed. What was at stake was their ability to amplify that message more than an organization that has less money than they do.
Assuming that this is true, then the real impact of the ruling was to transfer power from the media to non-media corporations. Under the existing system, the media would function as gatekeepers to the means of amplifying one's message. (Well, I suppose they still do, since they could always turn down advertising dollars, but unlikely.) After all, the "competing for airtime" you're referencing really means, in practice, competing for the attention of reporters.
Andrew Hall
Dennison Place (The Circles)
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gramarye wrote
Assuming that this is true, then the real impact of the ruling was to transfer power from the media to non-media corporations. Under the existing system, the media would function as gatekeepers to the means of amplifying one's message. (Well, I suppose they still do, since they could always turn down advertising dollars, but unlikely.) After all, the "competing for airtime" you're referencing really means, in practice, competing for the attention of reporters.
I strongly suspect that the big spring of FoxNews is not merely coincident with McCain-Feingold.
A.
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