Under current FEC regulations bloggers enjoy protection from over burdensome campaign finance laws. Bloggers who write about or link to certain candidates are not considered to have contributed to the campaigns of the candidate in any way. Under the current regulations bloggers are also given the general media exemption which allows them to cover politics in the way they see fit.
But these are just temporal FEC regulations, not law. A future FEC could reverse course and heavily regulate bloggers or a future Congress could create statutes to the same effect.
Congressman Jeb Hensarling knows this, and has introduced the Blogger Protection Act to lock the current FEC regs into statute.
It is sad to think that this legislation is necessary, but it is. The blogosphere is on the cutting edge of free speech and political expression. As its influence grows, incumbency-loving politicians will seek to control it more and more to save their own rears. Good for Hensarling for recognizing this need ahead of time.
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