Trouble For Bloggers

From Captain's Quarters:

"Charles Schumer and Barack Obama plan to introduce a bill today in the Senate that will impose more regulation on political speech during campaigns in order to end 'deceptive' practices."

"The bill allows 'individuals', according to the NYT, to file lawsuits against anyone promoting what the plaintiff sees as "deceptive" public argument." (Emphasis mine)

Imagine, for example, that the Hillary Clinton for President Campaign starts suing bloggers who make deceptive arguments. Even if a sued blogger wins his lawsuit he will still be out at least $100,000 in legal fees. This would have a very chilling effect on bloggers.

Large papers such as the NYT have the resources to fight back and so wouldn't be "chilled" by such a law. The Law, therefore, would benefit newspapers in their competition with bloggers. Consequently, you should expect this proposed law to be strongly supported by the traditional media. I wrote more about this here.