Censoring America: an attempt to squelch ads for a controversial new film illustrates how 'campaign finance reform' has created a new corps of federal speech police.
The New American › July 26, 2004
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Censoring America: an attempt to squelch ads for a controversial new film illustrates how 'campaign finance reform' has created a new corps of federal speech police.
On March 27, 2002, with a studious lack of fanfare, President Bush signed into law the "Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act" (or BCFRA), a measure supposedly intended to relieve politics of the corrupting influence of corporate money. Rather than affixing his signature to the legislation in an elaborate Rose Garden ceremony, surrounded by the bill's congressional sponsors and other invited guests, Mr. Bush quietly penned his name on the document away from public scrutiny, announcing the action after the fact in a White House press release.
Why did President Bush uncharacteristically avoid taking credit for signing BCFRA into law? After all, the bill-signing ceremony is a high-profile exercise of presidential power and a prime opportunity to cultivate congressional allies. It's reasonable to conclude that President Bush's political handlers regarded BCFRA's enactment as shameful in some sense, and with good reason: The measure is an assault on freedom of speech in the interest of protecting the political class. For good reason the...See the full content of this document
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