There is an extremely troubling bill is being proposed. FL Senate Bill 1316: Information Dissemination. This was presented by State Senator Jason Brodeur (R-Lake Mary). It basically requires bloggers to register with the state of Florida if they write articles about government officials. They would have to register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics. Of course, the media (link to just one of the articles) is jumping all over it. Seriously WTF FL Senator Brodeur?
WTF
What kind of draconian bullshit is this? This jackwagon actually thought this was a good idea on how to combat misinformation. For a political party that preaches keeping government out of our lives as much as possible, this goes waaaaay beyond anything I could imagine. I wrote about this when the Biden administration wanted to have an information czar and how scary that was.
What it says
Brodeur wrote that those who write “an article, a story, or a series of stories,” about “the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, a Cabinet officer, or any member of the Legislature,” and receive or will receive payment for doing so, must register with state offices within five days after the publication of an article that mentions an elected state official.
In the bill blogs are defined as; “a website or webpage that hosts any blogger and is frequently updated with opinion, commentary, or business content” and a blog post as “an individual webpage on a blog which contains an article, a story, or a series of stories.”
Also, if the blog post has another posting added to the original, the blogger would be required to submit monthly reports on the 10th of each month. I am completely floored by this bullshit. This sounds like some old-school Soviet-style shit going on right here. He goes on to say; for blog posts that “concern an elected member of the legislature” or “an officer of the executive branch,” monthly reports must disclose the amount of compensation received for the coverage, rounded to the nearest $10 value. Additional compensation must be disclosed later on.
Proposed Penalties
If you fail to file disclosures or register with state officials, this would lead to daily fines for the bloggers, with a maximum amount of $2,500 for each blog post. The fine is $25/day per post for each day it’s late.
SB 1316 also requires that bloggers file notices of failure to file a timely report in the same way that lobbyists file their disclosures and reports on assessed fines. Fine payments must be deposited into the Legislative Lobbyist Registration Trust Fund (sounds like a slush fund to me)if it refers to an elected member of the legislature.
For writing about members of the executive branch, fines would be made payable to the Executive Branch Lobby Registration Trust Fund or, if it concerns both groups, the fine may be paid to both related trust funds in equal amounts.
From SB1316
Who is exempt?
The blogger bill would not apply to newspapers or similar publications, under Brodeur’s proposed legislation.
In addition to the blogger regulations, the bill also removes provisions of state statutes to require judicial notices of sales to be published on publicly accessible websites and specifies that a government agency can publish legally required advertisements and public notices on county sites if the cost is not paid by or recovered from an individual.
Should this bullshit bill be passed it would take effect immediately.
Wrong on so many levels
Dear lord this is so wrong on so many levels. The Republicans are in enough hot water since retaking the House of Representatives in DC, they have not done much other than open investigations and not much else. This will certainly not help their national agenda as you know the Democrats and the left will milk this for all its worth. Honestly, I can’t blame them, at least for this one. How did we get to this point that we now need governing on free speech??? Also, if a blogger labels his or her blog as a news entity does this mean they are not subject to these draconian laws that Sen Brodeur is trying to get passed?
This is so big brother my head is still spinning. Gov. DeSantis better reel that shit back in or risk losing a lot of voters come in the next election. Also, the Florida Senate will be in severe jeopardy of being taken over by Democrats, and as much as I hate to say this, they will deserve it. I have emailed the Governor’s office asking about this. Now I do not expect anything other than a canned response if any at all. I mean who the hell am I…lol. He’s not going to respond to some putz from Arizona. At least I can say I tried, right? If by some miracle I get an actual response I will be sure to share it but don’t hold your breath.
If you have any opinions please drop one in the comments below. You DO NOT have to sign up for anything, just leave a comment.
