John Bambenek, over at BC Magazine, has filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against Kos Media, LLC., or Daily Kos. Here is the law as I understand it, and this is the basis for John’s complaint:
However, the statement that the DailyKos was about electing Democrats stuck with me. I always assumed it was a standard left-wing group blog spouting the latest and greatest in left-wing diatribe. However, the statement that the blog exists to get Democrats elected is repeated in various places around the site, including statements by Kos himself.
Federal Election Commission rules apply for organizations that spend or contribute an equivalent of $1,000 per year in trying to influence elections for federal office. DailyKos is owned by Kos Media, a company, which makes it fit the definition of an organization. It surely spends at least $1,000 per year in hosting and based on what they charge (and get) for advertising, their support of candidates is certainly worth over $1,000 per year. Lastly, their self-identified purpose is to influence elections in the Democrats favor. They fit the criteria.
I would bet that kos Media was established in order to fit the definition of the media exemption clause…What say you?
I think the Left should die by the government regulation they put into place to stiffle dissent to their policies and actions.
Wasn’t the guy Markos Kos? behind Ned Lamonts campaign in Connecticut? This would be reason enough but aside from that, yes absolutely they should be subjected to the same election laws. Who do they think they are anyway? And if they did establish this to fit the media exemption clause then they should be fined and thown in jail for breaking the rules.
Be careful folks- this is a slippery slope. Do you realize the efefct that this could have on politico bloggers? Anyone who spends more than $1000.00/year in web hosting fees and that blogs political could be subject to the FEC.
Scary…although in the end the advantage would be to the right’s as most politico blogs are left.
It just smacks of Fairness Doctrine style tactics to me.
I understand what you’re saying Ted however I was mostly referring to the campaign functions and this conference they are hosting. These are things beyond the ‘media’ umbrella. At best they should consider dividing their company into two entities. That can be done.
How much does this site spend per year on web hosting, etc?
Ted, our stated goal is not to “elect Republican candidates”, nor do we spend bandwidth on fundraisers for candidates….The rules for this type of blog are quite clear, but dkos is another story. Lamont is a prime example…
dkos is well within his right to push whatever candidates he wishes to, and he can spend what he wants, but what he can’t do is try to circumvent the laws that are on the books. There is a flip side to having all that traffic at that “blog”
6.
I understand that. However laws and rules can easily be changed so that this site could be looked upon as a site that promotes a particular party and their candidates.
This is the slippery slope that I am referring to. This is the “Fariness Doctrine” type tactics I am referring to.
Daily Kos = Daily Pos
FEC has already weighed in on this question a couple years ago with the FiredUp sites. This Bambenek fellow is being a putz and even conservative sites are calling this complaint as the BS that it is.
You mean this is all just politically-motivated BS? Like the Plame “outing” case?
10,
“You mean this is all just politically-motivated BS? Like the Plame “outing”case?”
Exactly, but that’s all are national politics are nowadays.
There’s a reason why I’d never go into politics. I’d get fed up with the never ending stream of BS and start slapping people in the back of the head and tell them to wake up and start working for the good of the country instead of the damn party. AND that would include both Democrats and Republicans.
Rush Limbaugh made the comment the other day that Congress was complaining about the Iraqi Parliament not getting as much done towards the political benchmarks as Congress expected. Rush felt it was rather hypocritical of Congress to complain considering the lack of actual progress toward getting anything of consequence accomplished by the Democratically controlled Congress for the last 6 months despite them not having anyone shooting at them or trying to blow them up like the Iraqi Parliament has. My first thought was that maybe if we started shooting a few of the ones who are more interested in fleecing the public than serving it, the rest might improve their job performance. Either that or they’d resign and run home in fear. Either way the US taxpayer would come out ahead. Think of the tax savings. No more bridges to nowhere. No more million dollar earmarks to companies that may not even exist. No more paying people to hold idiotic hearings and endless investigations over pointless issues. No more $90,000 in marked FBI bribe money hidden in a freezer….
12, No, FAO, they’d pass more laws to protect themselves and hire more bodyguards at taxpayer expense. Chris Dodd did just that after he got mugged back in the 70s.