FEC Declines to Rule on Filmmaker Exemption

[NewJerseyDem]

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/6062-1.html (subscription required)

As critics stepped up their efforts to discredit Michael Moore’s controversial documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11,” the Federal Election Commission declined to rule on whether documentary films qualify for a journalistic exemption from laws designed to regulate campaign advertisements and other types of electioneering.

The question landed at the FEC because of a case involving a far less famous filmmaker, David Hardy. Hardy’s film, “The Rights of the People,” explores the Bill of Rights and is being produced on behalf of a nonprofit group called the Bill of Rights Educational Foundation, according to documentation filed with the FEC.

In a meeting Thursday morning, FEC commissioners concurred with the agency’s general counsel that proposed advertisements for Hardy’s film qualify as “electioneering communications” and therefore may not be paid for with corporate or labor funds. Moreover, if legally funded, such ads would be subject to stringent reporting requirements.

But the commissioners at the meeting broke with the general counsel, which had advised that the filmmaker should not be granted a “media exception” equivalent to that provided to broadcast journalists and others.

[Miss Authoritiva]

1. Yeah, I can understand how a movie made by the

Bill of Rights Educational Foundation could really skew an election.

[7th_Sephiroth]

2. hmmmmmm

the repubs dont want a film about the bill of rights and the rights of the people to be shown, telling, isint it?

[Skip Intro]

3. They hate us for our freedoms. n/t