The Latest News from the Institute for Free Speech November 29, 2022 Click here to subscribe to the Daily Media Update. This is the Daily Media Update published by the Institute for Free Speech. For press inquiries, please contact [email protected]. In the News NTD Capitol Report (Video): Smith: Musk’s Success Would Be Good Long Term By Steve Lance .....NTD spoke with Bradley Smith, commissioner of the Federal Election Commission, to discuss Twitter’s recent move to reinstate major conservative accounts. R Street: Letter Requesting FEC to Hold New Public Comment Period for Proposed Advertising Rule .....The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) is moving forward on a proposed rule that would change the regulations around digital campaign advertising, but is electing to forgo a public comment period. This course of action would be a mistake, and potentially violate the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) of 1946... Public comment periods are a critical means of ensuring that new regulations are right-sized and adhere to a democratic lawmaking process. This important provision of the APA ensures that Americans have the opportunity to weigh in on important aspects of government activity that impact them directly. Disallowing comments at this time undermines the American people, who always deserve transparency from administrative agencies—particularly from the FEC—because such input helps refine and improve proposed rule changes. This is especially important as outlined in a recent analysis highlighting the ways in which the proposed rule is insufficiently clear and lacks the necessary small item exception. Free Expression New York Magazine (Intelligencer): Do You Have a Right Not to Be Lied To? The legal thinkers reconsidering freedom of speech. By Jeff Wise .....In response to Trump’s ascent and other challenges across the world to shared truths that stitch together societies, some scholars have begun to argue that it’s time to reconsider the meaning of freedom of speech. “The question is gaining traction among legal academics,” says Richard Hasen, a professor at UCLA Law School. It’s a fraught undertaking, to be sure. In the United States, the First Amendment protects speech to a degree rare elsewhere in the world. But these are extraordinary times. People United for Privacy: Private Giving is Essential to Charities – and Free Speech .....Today, nonprofit organizations that speak out about public issues also face demands from politicians in both parties to publicly expose the names and home addresses of their supporters, putting them at risk of harassment and retaliation for their beliefs. These threats to charitable giving and donor privacy are also threats to free speech. If groups that call out government corruption or take a stand on a heated issue can be forced to reveal their members’ personal information, those members can be targeted for reprisals and bullied into silence by those who disagree. Soon, the many watchdog organizations and citizen groups that Americans rely on to be their voice in public discourse will fall silent too. The Media Glenn Greenwald: The Media's Deranged Hysteria Over Elon Musk's Promised Restoration of Free Speech .....It is hard to overstate how manic, primal and unhinged is the reaction of corporate media employees to the mere prospect that new Twitter owner Elon Musk may restore a modicum of greater free speech to that platform. It was easy to predict — back when Musk was merely toying with the idea of buying Twitter and loosening some of its censorship restrictions — that there would be an all-out attack from Western power centers if he tried. Online censorship has become one of the most potent propaganda weapons they possess, and there is no way they will allow anyone to dilute it even mildly without attempting to destroy them. Even with that expectation in place of what was to come, the liberal sector of the corporate media (by far the most dominant media sector) really outdid itself when it came to group-think panic, rhetorical excess, and reckless and shrill accusations. National Review: When Journalists Become Speech Police By Charles C.W. Cooke .....Call it Cooke’s First Law: Whatever the story, however complex its details, members of the American press will react by announcing who must be forbidden to speak going forward. That is what too many journalists are now — not firefighters, not mediators, not conveyors of vital information, but zealous obscurantists staffing would-be censorship agencies. In comes the news, and, within minutes, out comes the latest justification for shutting everyone up. A mentally ill homeless man attacks Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer? That’s the Republican Party’s fault for running political ads against Pelosi — and it must stop. A disturbed man shoots up a gay club in Colorado Springs, Colo.? That’s the fault of Americans who object to drag shows for kindergartners — and they must be quiet. Elon Musk plans to moderate Twitter with a lighter hand? That will cause “havoc” and put lives at risk — and it must be prevented at all costs. Candidates and Campaigns Newsday: Campaign donations, spending in NY governor's race highest in 20 years By Michael Gormley .....This year’s race for New York governor was fueled by more than $78 million in campaign donations and more than $68 million in spending, which doubled the figures for each of the last four gubernatorial races to a level unseen in 20 years... “What do I think of this spending? I hate it,” said Gerald Benjamin, a professor emeritus of political science at SUNY New Paltz, referring to overall campaign spending. “It’s one of the great evils.” ... But not all political scientists see a problem in this level of spending. "Spending in the 2022 gubernatorial race reflected the fact that Republicans had their first real chance at the governorship in two decades," said David Primo, a professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester who has written extensively on campaign financing. "This spending reflected a robust, competitive election with two candidates offering competing visions for the state and vying for the votes of New Yorkers. Isn’t this what we should want in a democracy?" ... “New York state government decision-making is being warped by big-money contributions,” said John Kaehny, executive director of the good-government group Reinvent Albany... But Primo said, "Research fails to find evidence that campaign contributions are corrupting. Campaign finance is a convenient target for those who believe democracy is drowning in money. Perhaps, though, as the past few years have shown, money in politics is the least of our problems." Los Angeles Times: Column: What $104 million could buy, instead of a failed mayoral run By Gustavo Arellano .....$104,848,887.43 — Rick Caruso spent at least that much on his unsuccessful campaign to become mayor of Los Angeles, according to the latest campaign finance records. That’s 11 times more than the $9 million spent by the victor, Karen Bass.It’s the largest amount a mayoral candidate has spent in U.S. history, just ahead of the $102 million Michael Bloomberg threw at his 2009 reelection in New York. Caruso hoped to replicate the success of Richard Riordan, another L.A. rich-man-turned-mayor. Instead, the billionaire developer joined Al Checchi, Michael Huffington and Meg Whitman in California’s political bonfire of self-funded, fabulously wealthy losers. The States Tallahassee Democrat: State looks to limit protests at Capitol with rules to protect children from 'harmful materials' By James Call .....Florida officials may get new tools to silence dissent and prevent demonstrations at the State Capitol under new freedom of speech rules proposed by the Department of Management Services, the agency that serves as the state's property manager. DMS wants to empower law enforcement to remove individuals they think may prove disruptive from traditional public forum arenas — such as the fourth floor rotunda separating the Florida House and Senate chambers, and the Capitol Courtyard. The Florida ACLU warns, as currently written, the proposed rules are a how-to guide to chill political speech. Read an article you think we would be interested in? 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