http://www.reason.com/hod/js030805.shtml March 8, 2005 Bloggers Beware Threats to the status quo are always ripe for "reform" John Samples [...] History should give pause to those concerned about liberty on the Internet. New technology that threatens the political status quo quickly attracts Congressional regulation and restrictions. Take the history of television in American politics. In 1968, three candidates—Eugene McCarthy, George Wallace, and Richard Nixon—challenged the entrenched status quo by spending large sums of money on television advertising. McCarthy's spending drove the incumbent president Lyndon Johnson out of office. Wallace's TV strategy brought him 14 percent of the vote and may have denied Democrats the presidency. Richard Nixon's lavish spending on television helped him narrowly take the presidency from Hubert Humphrey. In 1968, uncontrolled political spending on a new technology threatened the political status quo. Congress acted swiftly to meet the threat. In the spring of 1969, members introduced a bill to limit campaign spending on television advertising. The bill became law in 1971 and went into effect the following year. Congress had, in the words of one member, "tamed the television monster." Yet the "monster" in question was a threat only to those who held power. [...] _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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