Thursday, June 24, 2004

Backfire: The Federal Election Commission may have to ban television ads for Michael Moore's new Bush-bash movie, because the ads bash Bush.

What's that you say? Censorship? Free Speech? First Amendment? By golly, you're absolutely right.

Unfortunately, the bans are all perfectly legal under the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill that was passed last year and upheld by the Supreme Court. As many of us have been warning for quite some time, this new law will have a chilling effect on free speech.

Political ads paid for by various groups are heavily restricted. In fact, they can't be shown at all within a month or two of the primary or general election -- exactly when the public is starting to pay attention. And since Mr. Moore's utterances are political in nature, they are to be controlled.

That flies in the face of the First Amendment, which seeks to protect political speech more than any other type of speech.

Michael Moore already takes advantage of one loop hole, considering he can show his film filled with all its lies and mistruth in the theater, but another group cannot run a commercial to counter it and set the record straight.

In regards to meeting the goals of cleaning up campaign ads and limiting money's influence in elections, the McCain-Feingold law has utterly failed. The law only succeeds in limiting who can participate in public discourse.

Update, More Moore Lies: Last night on The Daily Show, Mr. Moore blamed the attempts to ban his movie ads on some underground Republican conspiracy. And Jon Stewart -- stargazed and mindless, unlike his usual self -- bought it hook, line, and sinker. Between the two liberals, nobody questioned or mentioned the ill effects of McCain-Feingold, even though the law was largely a Democratic initiative.