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Advocacy Blog
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Will The Colbert Report Violate Campaign Finance Law?
Don't miss this hilarious video clip of Stephen Colbert doing a spoof of the Federal Election Campaign Act's (FECA) application to his campaign for presidency. He has signed papers to get on the Democratic and Republican primary ballots in South Carolina. Now many are asking whether Colbert risks violating election law with the show promoting the campaign. What would happen to the show as the election nears? Faced with a similar situation earlier this year, NBC decided to stop airing Law & Order reruns featuring Fred Thompson.
Bob Bauer at moresoftmoneyhardlaw.com describes Colbert's candidacy as it relates to campaign finance restrictions.
The split screen he used to make the point is about as good a jab at the inner contradictions and porous boundaries of the law as any found in standard anti-reform critiques. It might end here, or it might go farther. It appears that Colbert will flirt with violating the law, or build a piece or two around the flirtation, but since he has hired Wiley Rein, he seems also prepared to keep to the legal side of the line—mostly. If he just walks the line from time to time—as visible as the line can be—regulators will have little appetite for challenging Colbert.
Colbert's first-line of defense is to establish that his show is a news show, entitled to the protections of the "media exemption." Assuming that he is successful there—as he would be, most likely— then the question is whether his hosting of the show as a candidate presents any special issues, now and perhaps under the electioneering communication prohibition, effective within the 30 day period prior to the South Carolina primary.
Posted by Amanda Adams
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