Free Speech -- Pewgate: The Battle of the Blogosphere -- Note parallels to Canada, if any

Pewgate: The Battle of the Blogosphere Richard Poe, FrontPageMagazine.com, March 25, 2005

Richard Poe is a New York Times-bestselling author and journalist whose blog appears at RichardPoe.com. He is managing editor of David Horowitz’s group blog Moonbat Central. Poe’s latest book is Hillary’s Secret War: The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists.

The blogosphere is under attack. For three weeks, bloggers have battled the Federal Election Commission, seeking exemption from campaign finance laws that would effectively regulate political speech on the Web.

How did it come to this?

The answer lies in a burgeoning scandal which we might call Pewgate. [. . . . ]

You should read this one and check all the links.

Blogger Tom Smith at Right Coast declared, "[T]hey can stop us from blogging … when they pry our keyboards from our cold, dead fingers." [. . . . ]

Blog on By Tom Smith Mar. 5, 05

[. . . . ] I am not really kidding here. As I said, I think/hope the fears are exaggerated. But I do think political bloggers, left and right, should just prepare themselves psychologically for the possibility of having to take a concrete stand for free speech. Or maybe just prepare to prepare themselves. Free speech is one of those important things. If it does come to that, sticking together will be the important thing. The swarm. United. Will never be defeated.

How did such a crazy law get through Congress in the first place? That’s where Pewgate comes in.

Beginning in 1994, a group of non-profit foundations began bankrolling "experts" and front groups whose purpose was to bamboozle Congress into thinking that millions of Americans were clamoring for "campaign finance reform" – even though they were not. [. . . . ]