Posted on 03/02/2023 1:33:29 PM PST by semimojo
Florida Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Lake Mary) wants bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody, and other members of the Florida executive cabinet or legislature to register with the state or face fines.
Brodeur’s proposal, Senate Bill 1316: Information Dissemination, would require any blogger writing about government officials to register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics.
In the bill, 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 receives 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.
If another blog post is added to a blog, the blogger would then be required to submit monthly reports on the 10th of each month with the appropriate state office. They would not have to submit a report on months when no content is published.
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.
If compensation is paid for a series of posts or for a specific amount of time, the blogger would be required to disclose the total amount to be received, upon publication of the first post in said series or timeframe.
Additional compensation must be disclosed later on.
Failure to file these disclosures or register with state officials, if the bill passes, would lead to daily fines for the bloggers, with a maximum amount per report, not per writer, of $2,500. The per-day fine is $25 per report for each day it’s late.
The bill also requires that bloggers file notices of failure to file a timely report the same way that lobbyists file their disclosures and reports on assessed fines. Fines must be paid within 30 days of payment notice, unless an appeal is filed with the appropriate office. Fine payments must be deposited into the Legislative Lobbyist Registration Trust Fund if it concerns 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.
Explicitly, the blogger rule would not apply to newspapers or similar publications, under Brodeur’s proposed legislation.
In additional 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 the bill pass, it would take effect immediately upon approval.
Why do you have the nickname “heavy metal”, because you ingested too much lead paint as a child and are now retarded?
So exposing DeSantis’s views is a problem?
Did you sponsor this bill? Inquiring minds want to know.
How is DeSantis involved with this?
This is some rando state senator.
the only thing you people are doing is exposing your hypocrisy and ignorance...
Source: His own campaign literature.
This deal the stupid Florida voters passed with flying colors in 2022 it was on the ballot. How the hell are teachers lumped in with "first responders"? We have a high school teacher as a neighbor a screaming liberal. Really needs another homestead exemption while he's making $69,000 a year for four-day work weeks and months off for vacay. Plus he gets to spend all day with those cute 17 year old girls.
Horse crap. This is where leftists get their “right-wingers are fascist” arguments from. Stupid.
I don’t think this is likely to go anywhere. He’s a minor person from a district near Orlando, where I think mainly of alligators, although it is apparently growing and becoming part of Florida’s tech corridor.
Is he trying to damage DeSantis?
This would be the definition of a “chilling effect” on First Amendment freedoms.
Don’t globalists do this kind of thing…?
I didn’t say he was, I was just asking if he approved of this. Seems unlikely tho that some rando state senator would put something like this forward without first running it by the Republican Party and DeSantis.
I've noticed lately that people can be prosecuted for violating laws but are never prosecuted for constitutional violations.
Its as if there is no controlling authority to prosecute constitutional violations unless they relate to minorities.
The FBI Civil Rights Division is constantly involving its self in elections and police matters.
But I ask, what agency can people turn to when other civil rights are violated?
The first, second and several other amendments seem to have no advocacy in the federal government. You are on your own to seek civil remedies.
“Is he trying to damage DeSantis?”
That’s my thought.
Pulling a Lindsay Graham when Graham announced a bill to ban abortion about a month and a half before election day. He did that in order to help try kill Republican chances.
“Should the bill pass, it would take effect immediately upon approval.”
And be thrown out as unconstitutional by the courts.
Sorry, but that violates the Constitution.
you act like a karen...
That sounds a lot like the leftists "stay in your own lane". This is a discussion forum where we discuss all things. You may not like what's said but you can't control others opinions.....
your excerpting my post to your advantage has leftists tactics written all over it...
Nope. Your posting history is quite informative.
Address the substance of my post: You have no right on a discussion forum to try to control others opinions. You don't debate, you insult and try to silence opposition.
there’s nothing to your post to address...
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