First Amendment Outflanked and Under Fire

While the left has been preoccupied with worry about potential for civil liberties violations under this administration and with the Patriot Act, (hollow cries at best), the First Amendment has taken a direct hit with serious implications. Michelle Malkin has the story:

Last week, a Thurston County, Washington, judge ruled that on-air editorial comments by two of my old friends, Seattle talk hosts Kirby Wilbur and John Carlson of KVI-AM, are considered in-kind campaign contributions, subject to reporting under state disclosure laws.

She also links to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial that's a remarkable admission from an otherwise hyper-liberal newspaper:

Two years ago, when the federal campaign-finance law reached the U.S. Supreme Court, dissenting justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas warned that something like this would happen. We doubted it; it seemed clear to us that the law applied to ads, not editorial content. We thought Thomas was over the top when he said campaign-finance law was leading toward "outright regulation of the press." Judge Wickham has made a step toward just that. It is a dangerous, unconstitutional ruling. The losers need to appeal it and the appellate courts need to reverse it.

Indeed. While the left was watching the front door, the non-partisan and seemingly innocuous campaign finance "reform" meme snuck round the back and set the First Amendment house on fire. And no, this is not just a Washington State thing. It could easily move beyond there. Justices Thomas and Scalia were right to see that there is only a slippery slope where others see firm distinctions among different types, (and financers of) speech.

Speech is speech. Free speech will always be messy. But so long as people have choices of what to watch, hear, see, or not - increasingly true in our exploding array of media choices: e.g., tens of millions of blogs, cable TV, etc. - more speech and more open speech will be the solution. This development is truly frightening. I hope my friends on the left, (if I still have any), can see this for what it is: a common problem we must fight together. McCain-Feingold needs to be put in the dustbin of history along with other grand ideas for controlling how people choose to spend their money, time and energy.

Malkin's whole piece is worth reading, and she's always good with updates.