RYAN SAGER writes on campaign finance “reform” and censorship:

The problem for Temple and bloggers like him who mix journalism and activism — popular sites such as the conservative RedState.org and the liberal DailyKos.com — is that they may well lose no matter what the FEC decides.

If such sites are not entitled to the press exemption, they will likely run afoul of limits under federal law on how much individuals and corporations can donate to candidates for federal office. Their journalism will, in effect, be labeled a campaign contribution.

But even if these sites do get the press exemption, what will they have won? Nothing more than the “privilege” of writing news and commentary without fear of prosecution. In other words, they’ll get to exercise the most basic right of all Americans only so long as the government continues to approve.

This is press licensing, and it’s unconstitutional and unAmerican.