CLEVELAND — Democrats on the Federal Election Commission, shifting 180 degrees from their repeated moves to punish conservative media criticism of liberals, including the president, voted in secret to OK a savage liberal radio attack on Sen. Ted Cruz, a featured speaker at tonight’s Republican National Convention here.
In the vote, posted on the FEC site, Democratic commissioners who have targeted Fox News, the Drudge Report, the maker of an anti-Obama movie, and other conservative outlets, granted a media exemption to the assault on Cruz by a Rhode Island radio host who charged that the onetime presidential candidate would build a “Temple of Doom.”
The June 14 vote was 6-0. Republicans on the commission have long argued that all media operate under the First Amendment and should be given an exemption from FEC rules. They have also been warning of Democratic attempts to regulate conservative media.
In recent cases where liberals are accused of violating election laws, the votes have typically been 6-0. But in those where conservative outlets hit liberal politicians, the votes are 3-3, with Democrats refusing to grant the same media exemption to conservatives.
In the newly revealed case, a complaint was filed against Geoff Charles, a shock jock on WHJY of Providence, R.I., for a long anti-Cruz rant in which he concluded:
“So a vote for Ted is a vote to bring America to its knees in supplication to what he deems to be the resurrection of American values and its devotion to its Christian heritage. Meanwhile, any nation who threatens our worldwide rule will be bombed back to the Stone Age. A vote for Ted means America inches closer to a Plutocratic dictatorship blessed by God. Here’s your chance to finally build that Temple of Doom.”
A listener complained that it amounted to an advertisement against Cruz and should have included a disclaimer at the end.
The FEC counsel, however, said that there wasn’t a violation and that the radio host should be granted the media exemption that typically covers even the harshest rants by media personalities.
“WHJY is a legitimate press entity, unconnected to any political committee, candidate, or party, and Charles’s broadcast constitutes legitimate press activity within the scope of the Act’s ‘press exemption.’ Accordingly, the costs incurred to produce and distribute the broadcast are not ‘expenditures’ within the meaning of the Act and the broadcast was not required to include a disclaimer,” said the FEC analysis, also posted online.
It added, “WHJY appears to be a press entity, unconnected to any political committee, candidate, or party, and its broadcast of the ‘From the White House to the Temple of Doom’ piece constitutes legitimate press activity within the scope of the Act’s ‘press exemption.”
Democratic commissioners have not always gone along with their lawyers. In case against Sean Hannity’s radio show, Democratic commissioners overruled the FEC’s lawyers to vote against the popular conservative talker.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
