Is a documentary entitle* Hillary: The Movie* a form of advertising?
How about another documentary called* Fahrenheit 911*?
Members of a group distributing “voter information cards” to people highlighting the stances of political candidates on a number of different social issues?
A group taking out radio ads criticizing the voting record of a sitting Congressman up for reelection?
Another group handing out pamphlets criticizing a Senator up for reelection who voted for bills they disagreed with?
An Op-Ed printed in the New York Times talking about what an asshole Mitt Romney is?
A skit on Saturday Night Live watched by millions of people ripping into a political candidate?
A popular blog read by countless people endorsing one political candidate and laying out a coherent argument as to why people should vote for and support that political candidate?
I ask, because there’s no consistent agreement on what does and doesn’t count as “advertising” or to use the jargon from the McCain-Feingold law struck down in Citizens United, “electioneering communications”.
Yes, they just are restricted in their choice of venue. As Citizens United were.
Edit:
If I were in the US, I’d recommend adopting the same standards as the UK. Far less is spent on elections per capita here, as far as I’m aware. Billboards are permitted, documentaries are not censored, but political parties don’t rely on effective frequency for advertising to work.
The government claimed the power to ban books. If BCRA had limited the FEC to only censoring the airwaves, the law would have probably stood. Corporations could still influence elections, but since the rules were unclear and they had to seek permission to speak beforehand, Kennedy ruled that it created a chilling effect on speech.
Protesters know that they will have a place to protest. Wanting to create electioneering communications and not knowing what you can and can’t do beforehand is a problem.
The Guardian article does indeed call him a “Jewish-American.” I certainly can’t remember ever seeing that locution used in the US, but perhaps it’s common in the UK. It’s not common here to hyphenate religious, as opposed to ethnic, extraction. (I know that “Jewish” can be regarded as an ethnicity for some purposes, but it’s basically never done in the US in this context).
Well, we’re in agreement there then adaher. Pamphlets, billboards, books and documentaries, I have no real beef with (nor can I think of a solution to advocacy masquerading as news other than challenging them on false claims or more public channels). I think the majority of expenditure is on television advertising and I think that’s where the pervasive effect of money on politics is felt most by the electorate.
Ads are all over Youtube, but the government better not muck with the internet.
I think at this point the well has been too poisoned for Kennedy to approve anymore restrictions, unless Congress does something really bold, like ban political TV ads entirely. Keep candidates off the airwaves too. Let people go to the internet or gasp! read a newspaper or book.