Hey, the Non-Official Campaign for Obama Needs its Swag
September 6th, 2012 - 8:14 pm
Forward!
Back in the 1920s, the iconoclastic H.L. Mencken wrote that “It is the prime function of a really first-rate newspaper to serve as a sort of permanent opposition in politics.”
In 2008, the JournoList dubbed themselves Obama’s “non-official campaign.”
Today, “Reporters Using ‘Fake Names’ to Buy Obama Campaign Merchandise at the DNC.”
As Mattheew Sheffield writes at Newsbusters, “Who knew that just a few days after our colleagues at MRCTV attracted a mob at the DNC passing out t-shirts bearing the phrase ‘Journalists for Obama’ that we’d see a report of journalists actually trying to do the very same thing?”
I wonder about something. When you buy campaign merchandise, doesn’t it count as a donation to the candidate? Isn’t that why they require your name and such, for purposes of campaign finance laws, and especially, the limits of contributions? Is not using a false name a violation of campaign finance laws?