I say “ban” in that the Democrat on the Commission seem concerned apparently with conservative media (um, because it rocks the hizznouse… Drudge pulls down mass visits!), so publishing news stories and books may be prohibited during election cycles. The saying goes, there is a little dictator waiting to get out of every Democrat. Here is the Washington Examiner’s story on this:
The chairman of the Federal Election Commission today blasted Democratic colleagues opposed to his effort to protect conservative media after they imposed rules on the publisher of Rep. Paul Ryan‘s new book, opening the door to future book regulations — or even a ban.
“By failing to affirm this publisher’s constitutional right, statutory right, to disseminate a political book free from FEC conditions and regulations, we have effectively asserted regulatory jurisdiction over a book publisher,” warned Chairman Lee E. Goodman, one of three Republicans on the six-person FEC.
“That failure reveals a festering legal uncertainty and chill for the free press rights of books and book publishers to publish and disseminate political books free from government regulation,” he added.
His comments after the FEC OK’d Republican Ryan’s request to promote his new book, The Way Forward, were immediately and sharply rebuked by Democratic Commissioner Ellen L. Weintraub. “No one is banning books,” she said.
Weintraub also hit Goodman for suggesting “that we are motivated by partisan bias, which is really not appreciated and untrue. I want to categorically deny that.”
The hard feelings continued after the morning session when Democrats on the commission refused to attend subsequent meetings, according to an insider.
And Goodman and the two other Republicans on the commission issued a six-page critique [below] of the commission’s vote on the Ryan book that slapped the constraints imposed on the publisher and on how Ryan’s re-election campaign and leadership political action committee, Prosperity Action, can promote the book on websites.
Since becoming chairman, Goodman has been pushing to expand protections for all media and has noted how Democrats on the panel have been eager to nick at freedoms for conservative media while Republicans have been voting for broader protections even for liberals like Democratic financier George Soros.
He recently warned that conservative online media, like the Drudge Report, could face regulation as Democrats move to tighten the so-called “media exemption” that lets the press cover politics any way they want.
White Rose [below] and the Night of the Broken Glass were events that didn’t happen over-night. There were small, incremental steps that led to these events/resistance.
