Kos He Says So (Campaign-Finance Edition)

"Any regulation presents a potential chilling effect on a medium that is truly the first democratic mass medium in the history of the world."

That's Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of The Daily Kos telling the Federal Elections Commission to flip off when it comes to stymieing blogs with campaign-finance laws. (Whole Fox News article here.)

And here's Kos telling Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) to stick it in his ear when it comes to regulating political speech on the Web:

Whether Feingold intends or not (and I don't believe he does), his actions will lead to a regulated blogosphere, even if indirectly. And once that happens, it will drive those seeking to pump money into the medium underground, while exposing those of us up in the light of day to malicious complaints and undue government interference.

Whole thing here.

Kos, alas, seems to believe that regulation of other media (due to "scarcity") is OK. And to that end, let's quote the greatest FEC capo in recent memory, Brad Smith:

The ideal system is the system we had that elected Abraham Lincoln and Grover Cleveland, which is no regulation. Or the system that elected both Roosevelts, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy, which is a system that had virtually no regulation.

More here and here.

Comments

[JS]

or the system that elected Washington. indeed, some might say, that's the system they fought a whole war for.

[NaG]

Kos is a tool.

[Mark Borok]

So what would be the libertarian argument against the "fairness doctrine"? Aside from a general opposition to gov't meddling?

[R C Dean]

So what would be the libertarian argument against the "fairness doctrine"?

That the fairness doctrine is not necessary to protect the citizenry from either force or fraud, and is therefore beyond the legitimate powers of government, for starters.

[Douglas Fletcher]

It ain't fair.

[Don Mynack]

Can I get an amen for my brother NaG?

[The Real Bill]

Amen!

[CTD]

It's true - Kos does not show a capacity for independent ideological thought. But it is still good to have him happening to be on the right, er, correct side today.

[PapayaSF]

This is really funny! The moral of the story: to get a lefty to oppose regulation, threaten to regulate his livelihood.

[Eric the .5b]

PapayaSF - Heh!

[redsox-tom]

Dailkos is a unprincipled twerp

He came out in favor of the Kelo decision. Maybe we should apply for a government taking of the domain name dailykos.com

Try posting something conservative on his blog - he deletes your ability to post. Which is his right but it does stifle debate.

[Akira MacKenzie]

"Kos, alas, seems to believe that regulation of other media (due to "scarcity") is OK."

Scarcity? Scarcity??? Where? We have dozens of radio stations, hundreds of TV channels, and damn-near unlimited satellite radio stations, websites, podcasts and other forms of media. Where the hell is this "scarcity" this doofus prattles on about?

[R C Dean]

Not to mention that nothing changes scarcity to plenitude like a nice thick blanket of government interference.