Grey Lady Calls for a 187 on 527s

A New York Times editorial today endorses legislation that would "force this blowzy lucre-genie," 527 groups and their campaign ads, "back into the bottle." The Times of course, is spared the FEC's tender mercies by a media exemption in the campaign finance laws. Because, as we all know, if you've got enough cash to promote your political views in a string of ads on cable news channels, you're tainting the democratic process. If, on the other hand, you've got enough cash to own the news channel—or a widely read newspaper and its Web extensions—then using them to promulgate the political views of David Brooks or Maureen Dowd serves the public interest.