-----------------------------------------------
[url]www.washtimes.com/national/inpolitics.htm[/url]
(07/02/02)
Regulating e-mails
Sen. John McCain and other congressional backers of the new campaign
finance law demanded that the Federal Election Commission regulate
e-mails as well as Internet advertising, according to FEC Commissioner
Bradley Smith.
Mr. Smith, interviewed last week by Tony Snow on the Fox News
Channel's "Special Report," said the commission resisted the Arizona
Republican's demands because the Internet was not mentioned in the
legislation.
"For example, the bill mentions a wide variety of types of
communications that are going to be set for more regulation -
billboards, magazines, broadcasts, cable, satellite. Never says a word
about Internet," said Mr. Smith, a Republican appointee.
"But when we went into our regulatory process, Senator McCain and the
other sponsors urged us to go ahead and regulate the Internet. Well,
four members of the commission said no.
"And those sponsors have asked the four members. Those four members
said we should resign. Now, they all say they want to regulate
publicly the Internet. But they didn't in their comments to the
commission."
Mr. Snow: "How do they want to regulate the Internet?"
Mr. Bradley: "Well, they want us to treat it like another other
campaign resource and limit the amounts that can be spent on it and
who can spend money. And to me, this would smother this new medium
that's so democratic, that's inexpensive, that almost anyone can use.
"And I think that had Congress known that they were going to be
regulating the Internet, it wouldn't have passed. Or another example
is e-mails. They want to regulate e-mail communications."
Mr. Snow: "Wait, wait. How do you do that?"
Mr. Smith: "What they want to do is regulate e-mail communications. If
they go to more than 500 people, they would have to be paid for with
certain amounts of hard money and subject to reporting requirements of
the act, and all the other panoply of things that go on under the
Federal Elections Campaign act, which is a very complex act."
Mr. Snow: "But whose communication would it regulate? Simply those of
officeholders, or anybody who's supporting an officeholder? How do you
make the bill of distinctions?"
Mr. Smith: "Well, it would be any communications made by political
parties and also by various 501C and nonprofit groups that citizens
might belong to. So, for example, if you're a member of, you know, any
group. You can pick one, the NRA .
Mr. Snow: "So would it apply to Common Cause, pushing for
McCain-Feingold?"
Mr. Smith: "If they sent out 500 e-mails at a particular time close to
an election. Now, we've rejected that approach. We say, look, people,
your e-mails are going to stay unregulated, at least until Congress
specifically says we want you to regulate Internet and e-mail."