The chair of the Federal Elections Commission failed in his mission to calm fears of his group potentially treating blogs as regulable political propaganda, rather than treating them as it does traditional media outlets. In a talk late last week, he instead kept alive fears that the new rules, to be proposed on March 24, may indeed squelch the ability of bloggers to rant on politics without it being considered a form of campaign donation, according to RedState.org. The conservative blog quoted the FEC chairman as saying, "We have shown at the FEC a willingness to extend the media exemption to some Internet-based news services. But this media exception inquiry will go to the question of: 'What is a periodical publication?' and 'What is a legitimate press function?' It will also get into: 'What is news?'…'What is commentary?'…'What is editorial content?'"
