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Professor sees Dems attacking bloggers

There's been a rip-roarin' discussion going on here at Riding Sun about whether failed presidential candidate John Kerry really wants to restrict or regulate what he calls America's "sub-media" — and in particular, the blogosphere.

Kerry set forth his concerns about the issue in a February speech, described here.

I've taken the view that Kerry, while smart enough to know that the pesky ol' First Amendment bars a direct attack on news sources he doesn't like, nevertheless wouldn't mind seeing some limits and controls placed on who's allowed to report the news, and how they're allowed to do it.

Others have argued that Kerry was simply complaining about the trend towards mixing, or even replacing, hard news with entertainment. They point out that Kerry didn't seem to be singling out blogs for special condemnation, and indeed benefitted in the last election from the efforts of liberal bloggers.

In an article published yesterday on Tech Central Station, James D. Miller, Assistant Professor of Economics at Smith College, considers the same Kerry speech — and weighs in on my side of the debate:

The Democratic Party will likely assist the MSM in their attack on blogs, not because most blogs are pro-Republican but because blogs are not as consistently liberal as the MSM. John Kerry, for example, is calling for the government to do something to protect the MSM. As he said in a recent speech:
"The mainstream media, over the course of the last year, did a pretty good job of discerning. But there's a subculture and a sub-media that talks and keeps things going for entertainment purposes rather than for the flow of information. And that has a profound impact and undermines what we call the mainstream media of the country. And so the decision-making ability of the American electorate has been profoundly impacted as a consequence of that. The question is, what are we going to do about it?"
The Republicans will, I hope, realize that on average their interests are served by protecting blogs. But the Democrats and the MSM will still use the courts and regulatory agencies to attack bloggers, and if the Democrats ever retake the Presidency and Congress expect "media reform" to become a top priority.
It's nice to see that I wasn't the only one who found a hostility to bloggers buried between the lines of Kerry's speech.

Professor Miller argues that Democrats, despite the protections of the First Amendment, could go after blogs by pursuing stricter, and more rigorously-enforced, laws on campaign finance reform, libel, and copyright protection. He argues that the mainstream media has the resources to research the impact of, and to comply with, tough new laws in these areas, as well as to defend themselves in court should they be sued. Individual bloggers, however, would likely be cowed into submission or abandon blogging all together.

It's a chilling vision, and one I hope doesn't come to pass.

FOLLOW-UP:
Interestingly, while some Democrats may be siding against bloggers, the Bush administration appears ready to treat them as legitimate information sources, even inviting a blogger to attend the White House's daily press briefings.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I still think it's ridiculous for you to think that the Democratic party has less of a commitment to free speech than the Republican party. But even if you are right that the Democratic leadership is secretly scheming to limit the rights of bloggers, the left side of the blogosphere would fight them tooth and nail, and right now, I think bloggers are in a better position to get their message out than the party leadership. Any attack on the freedom of the blogosphere would be political suicide for whichever party attempted it.
Those of us who care about freedom need to stay vigilant against attacks from both right and left, but I sincerely doubt such an attack is imminent, or even being contemplated in this case. 

Posted by Big Ben

Anonymous said...

You don't give our politicians enough credit for being clever. Any de facto  limitation on bloggers will come billed as a much-needed strengthening of copyright protection, for example, or of libel law. The impact of the new law would fall disproprotionately on individual bloggers, but that would never be touted as its primary purpose.

And regardless of whether such laws are ever proposed, it's still interesting to see the instinctive reactions of politicians of different stripes to the phenomenon of Internet-based citizen journalists. 

Posted by GaijinBiker

Anonymous said...

I think you don't give the blogosphere enough credit for being able to figure out the negative consequences of that sort of new law.
And it's a bit of a stretch to think that Kerry's recent comments had anything to do with "the phenomenon of Internet-based citizen journalists". I've never heard of any major Democratic politicians saying anything unambiguously negative about blogs. Let me know when you find them and I'll happily denounce them with you. 

Posted by Big Ben

Anonymous said...

"the left side of the blogosphere would fight them tooth and nail,"

Big ben,

why were there no major conservitive radio talk shows before rush limbaugh?

It was because the democrats had control of the federal goverment and pervented there existance trhough the FCC. The FCC bullied anyone who would tout a radically different line. They did it once and they will do it again. 

Posted by cubicle

Anonymous said...

cubicle,

Yeah, the left completely controlled the government and the FCC and rigidly enforced the party line on all media until the victimized and righteous Rush singlehandedly overthrew the commie overlords. That's why there were never any conservative christian radio broadcasts allowed, right?
Even Rush himself wouldn't believe such a paranoid conspiracy theory.

why were there no major conservitive radio talk shows before rush limbaugh? 
Because political talk radio is a format pioneered by Limbaugh. He created the genre. End of story. No need for conspiracies to explain it.

And as much as I generally think that grammar and spelling flames are bad form, I would suggest that when you're misspelling four words in a row ("pervented there existance trhough"), you might want to think about using a spell checker if you want people to take you seriously. 

Posted by Big Ben

Anonymous said...

BB,

I actually found a Democrat who supports   bloggers!

One for your side. I'll be posting on this soon. 

Posted by GaijinBiker

Anonymous said...

By the way, GB, there was a good post at Obsidian Wings  about this.
The networks and large corporate newspapers are facing a threat to their business model and may very well launch an attack on blogs using the methods you mentioned, but their motive is financial, not political. 

Posted by Big Ben

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but they're going to need some sympathetic pols on their side. 

Posted by GaijinBiker

Anonymous said...

I think the clowns responsible for this hoo-ha  may be willing to lend their sympathy and support.  

Posted by Bojack

Anonymous said...

The article you linked said tickets were distributed to the event. That says to me that the place, "Wings over the Rockies" wasn't a public forum for purposes of that event. It wasn't just open to anyone who wanted to waltz in; entry was being controlled.

In general, the distributor of tickets to an event can control who is allowed to attend.

I guarantee if these No Blood for Oil folks stage a protest in a public park or start a blog, the secret service will not be coming after them. 

Posted by GaijinBiker

Anonymous said...

Town hall meeting regarding Social Security paid for by US tax payers. Not to be contrary, but it was a public forum, tickets or not. 

Posted by Bojack

Anonymous said...

Calling it a "Town Hall Meeting" is irrelevant. Issuing tickets shows that entry to the event was being controlled.

It may be inappropriate to use taxpayer funds for an event of that nature that isn't open to the public, but that's a separate issue. 

Posted by GaijinBiker

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