Political Blogging To Be Illegal?

News.com's "The coming crackdown on blogging" is a Q&A piece with Bradley Smith, one of the six FEC commissioners. In it, Bradley lets it be known that the great Internet crackdown is about to begin. From the article:

In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.

In News.com's TalkBack section, user Al Gibson had this to say:

I'd love to see Judge Hyphen-Link try to ban me from hyperlinking to a political campaign and discussing the issues in a blog. Are they going to send Gonzales over to torture me if I fail to cease and de-link? No way.

I appreciate and support Al's defiance but fear this may really be the beginning of the end for free speech.

2005-03-01 17:32 C&T