Someone is fighting the House's livestreaming ban one donation at a time
On the first day of the newest Congress, a new penalty went into effect: anyone livestreaming, recording, taping, photographing, or broadcasting anything from the House floor could face up to a $2,500 fine.
Once the new fine was adopted Tuesday, a TV producer and self-described "newbie activist" in New York City decided this was effectively shutting down any sort of transparency between government proceedings and the public. In a phone call with Mashable Wednesday, Blaine (he asked to only use his first name) said he set up an online crowdfunding page and geared up to "shine light" on this fight.
For Blaine, his "Freedom on the Floor" fundraiser is about "attention and reversal" of the new rule, which tacks on a fine to long-established rules prohibiting broadcasting and video recording on the House floor. "I would much rather see this reversed than for the next three years be paying John Lewis’ violation fines," he said.
The rule change stems from a 25-hour sit-in last June over gun control. Led in part by Civil Rights icon Rep. Lewis, Democrats used Facebook Live, Periscope and other platforms on their phones to show their prolonged protest.
"That was a pivotal moment for me," Blaine, 48, said about the June sit-in after the Pulse nightclub massacre. "After Orlando I’ve been looking for ways to make a difference."
So now he's aiming to raise $25,000 -- or 10 maximum fines (it's a $500 fine for a first offense and $2,500 fee for subsequent offenses) -- through the end of the year. He said the money will go to candidates who are fined for violating the livestreaming rule. Any leftover money will go to two nonprofits, Public Citizen and the Dow Jones News Fund, he said. If the rule is reversed, Blaine said all the donations will go straight to these groups.
After the proposed rule change was introduced the Friday before Christmas, House Speaker Paul Ryan's spokeswoman AshLee Strong said in an email to Mashable that the changes "will help ensure that order and decorum are preserved in the House of Representatives so lawmakers can do the people's work."
Blaine said he expects plenty of fighting in Congress for at least the next two years, and we should all be able to see what and how decisions are being made. He plans on being the squeaky wheel until something changes. He is "always looking for issues that can have a reverberation effect."
As part of his first activism project, Blaine said he's giving away coffee mugs with a yet-to-be designed "Freedom on the Floor" logo to entice more donors. As of Wednesday afternoon, he'd raised just over $200 since officially launching the campaign earlier that day.
Topics Social Media Politics
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
