Followed by Annie Get Your Gun.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 - Hoping to spend as much as it wants on next year’s elections, the National Rifle Association is looking to buy a television or radio station and declare that it should be treated as a news organization, exempt from spending limits in the campaign finance law.
If the NRA were to be considered a media organization, it would be free to say what it wanted about candidates at any time and spend corporate money to do so, such as for commercials. ...
The nation’s gun lobby is talking with potential investors about an NRA broadcast outlet and is considering all possible funding sources, including gun manufacturers, [NRA executive vice president Wayne] LaPierre said.
Would this seemingly loony notion be taken seriously? Well, the same article notes that
The FEC has shown some willingness to consider broader applications of the media exemption.
The commission this year dismissed a complaint that accused Wal-Mart of making an illegal corporate donation to then-Senate candidate Elizabeth Dole by providing shoppers with a company publication featuring the North Carolina Republican.
Three Republican commissioners who supported the dismissal said the publication qualified for a press exemption that lets news organizations run articles about candidates without violating the ban on corporate contributions.
So now Wal-Mart is a news organization. Then why not the NRA? Why not any damn corporation at all? I bet they all have newsletters.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment