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Interview: Carol Darr

This week's Beltway Blogroll column looks ahead at what might happen now that bloggers have won a broad campaign-finance exemption.

The column is based on interviews with four key participants in the debate that occurred over the past year. Here is the full text of my e-mail interview with Carol Darr of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University.

BB: What do you expect to see this election season in terms of blogs? How will blogs and bloggers influence the election?

CD: Between the media exemption and the rules exempting most blog activities, there is plenty of room for online political mischief. These changes, combined with the potential offered by 527s and 501(c)4's, will open up a new era in unrestrained and undisclosed political money. Think Swift Boats on steroids.

BB: What potential for abuse is there under the new rules? Astroturf blogs? The kind of Halliburton-type blogs that became a subject of debate in the FEC process? Other?

CD: The potential is for large amounts of undisclosed money from foreign governments and individuals, and of course from deep pocketed American individuals, corporations and unions. Many of these potential abuses are not the result of the FEC's new Internet regs but are more attributable to larger changes in the media and in technology, and in the increasing polarization of U.S. politics, in which the meaner attacks are outsourced to third parties, who are less accountable.

I expect to see lots of funny/mean JibJab-style political videos, lots of micro-targeted e=mails, and undisclosed payments to bloggers made by third parties, not candidates, in order to escape disclosure.

BB: Do you expect more campaigns to pay bloggers as consultants? To hire bloggers outright? To start their own blogs?

CD: Yes to all three.

BB: How long before we see abuses? Will it happen in 2006? 2008? Or are the FEC rules solid enough to prevent abuses?

CD: Just because abuses happen, doesn't mean the public will necessarily be aware of them. I expect the activities to start immediately. Exemptions and loopholes never go unexploited for long, but if you have a good lawyer, the funding of many of these activities can escape public disclosure.

BB: What kinds of abuses might trigger calls for stronger rules?

CD: The presence of large amounts of foreign money that, not carefully conceived or executed, finds itself subject to public disclosure (either by the FEC or the IRS), or that investigative journalists are able to uncover. Much of this money, however, will probably not be disclosed or disclosed in a timely fashion. The public will just see political messages -- e-mailed videos, commentary on blogs or other online publications and in some instances online ads -- without knowing who paid for them.

BB: Some people already are arguing that the mere existence of rules of the subject of online campaigning opens the door to more regulation of the Internet. Is that true? If so, is it a bad thing

CD: It's not so much the presence of rules that leads to more rules; it's the presence of abuses that leads to more rules.

Posted by | 06:00 AM

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Comments

The mass media are already being manipulated by the major political parties (primarily the GOP) and major corporations. The recent revelatons about the use of Video News Releaseses, Pentagon and Defense Department PR and news production budgets, paid for government PR by radio and news personalilties:(most notably over Medicaid drug programs and school vouchers) and revelations about individuals like Jeff Gannon-Guckert make the current atmosphere of media hackery and abuse transparent. None of this is really even being addressed by the FEC or any other branch of the federal government.

I rather think that the pervasive powers of observation that have become apparent in the leftward side of the blogosphere will provide all the policing necessary. Eschatonians, Kossacks and MyDDers have eyes likr hawks and ears like bats. Bogus interlopers beware. The right wing of the blogosphere is now, always has been and always will be a willing tool of the GOP. So what's new that requires some cautionary regulation?

Retired Catholic | 04.11.06 12:51 PM

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