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For now, the Federal Election Commission doesn’t have YouTube entirely in its officious grasp, and that’s a wonderful thing. It helps make the video-sharing website a robustly unregulated — and thus invaluable — political marketplace. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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It’s no accident that the most memorable political advertisement in recent years was posted anonymously on YouTube, the famous 1984-themed anti-Hillary Clinton ad. A takeoff on an Apple Computer Super Bowl ad, the spot featured a woman in a Barack Obama T-shirt throwing a sledgehammer at a video screen filled with an ominous Hillary. The sledgehammer could just as well have been aimed at all the regulators, politicians, media pooh-bahs and professional hand-wringers who perennially worry that the political debate is too “uncontrolled” and set out to better control it.
This was the conceit of the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance-reform legislation that cracked down on “electioneering communications” by unions and other incorporated entities. They were forbidden from running broadcast ads mentioning candidates for federal office 60 days before an election, because such ads could — gasp — influence an election. The gatekeepers weren’t going to allow it.
Fortunately, in a large, restless and boisterous country, people will always exploit the lacunae in any scheme meant to regulate political debate. In 2004, it was the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who used a so-called 527 committee — exploiting a loophole in McCain-Feingold — to take money from a few wealthy donors to fund ads attacking John Kerry’s Vietnam record.
The Swift Boat vets existed outside any of the established channels of political communication and, because of that, were able to bring important information to the debate. No media organizations were going to examine critically Kerry’s war exploits or highlight his congressional testimony slamming his fellow vets. The Bush campaign wasn’t going to do it because it would be deemed “too negative,” and President Bush, not having served in Vietnam, was in no position to criticize Kerry. Enter the Swift Boat vets.
