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Who can get them re-elected?
The simple fact is that with the ever growing body of campaign regulations restricting how much money candidates can spend to get their message heard and what actions and advertising "influence groups" are allowed to take or use to sway the electorate, the power of the media to determine election results grows every year.

A 30 second campaign spot costs a sizable amount of money; of which candidates, all candidates have a finite amount. An attempt to get there message heard by an ?influence group? that could result in a several thousand dollar fine could well bankrupt a small grassroots political movement. But a 30 second endorsement by an entertainer before a show is not only free but protected from regulation by the first amendment and likely to be more effective than either the campaign ad or the actions of the grassroots political group. Even more valuable is a positive spin on stories about the candidate by a supposedly non-biased news show. Since virtually every news outlet is owned by a major player in the entertainment industry they have a huge incentive to put a positive spin on stories about candidates who "are sensitive to copyright issues" and put a negative spin on stories about candidates who take a more libertarian or market oriented view of copyright issues.

Welcome to the "unintended consequences" of campaign finance reform, of course these consequences were not unintended by the various media outlets that herded the voters into thinking they wanted more restrictive campaign regulations. Remember some of these people have had a virtual stranglehold on information dissemination for generations, you don't really believe they are going to let a little thing like the internet or advancing technology take that influence away from them without a fight do you.

Bjorn A Freeman
Posted by: bjornafreeman@...   Posted on: 07/22/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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Utterly Ridiculous  Jeff Spicoli | 07/21/04
Greedy people who don't get it  Seething Ganglia | 07/21/04
Dilute and induce  Anton Philidor | 07/21/04
You hit it!  AbsolutelyNot | 07/22/04
Interesting language  Anton Philidor | 07/22/04
Interesting Aspect  ParadigmOdyssey | 07/22/04
Litmus Test  alterego_z | 07/22/04
Who can get them re-elected?  bjornafreeman@... | 07/22/04
Would this affect BitTorrent as well?  worknman | 07/22/04
This will affect more than P2P  Seething Ganglia | 07/22/04
Government run amok  auratum@... | 07/22/04
Let's ban everything  tic swayback | 07/22/04
Maddness  voska | 07/22/04
Leave my CD burner out of this  BJMClarke | 07/22/04
Constitutional problem...  bthomasmo@... | 07/22/04
Capitalist dictatorship  virus00 | 07/22/04
And of course we all know...  Omch'Ar | 07/22/04
A question...  Not average Joe | 07/22/04
An answer...  AbsolutelyNot | 07/22/04
Like I've always said, PIRACY ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!  cybershoplifter | 07/22/04
RIAA Are liars, CD sales are not hurt by p2p  tic swayback | 07/22/04
Of course it's not the P2P that hurts! THIS hurts-  AbsolutelyNot | 07/22/04
Software authors hurt more by companies than downloaders  tic swayback | 07/22/04
Rising use of P2P distribution  Yagotta B. Kidding | 07/22/04

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