An extensive 17-page concurring statement, which begins:

            On July 16, 2015, the Commission voted not to open a new rulemaking proposing stricter mandates on corporate debate sponsorship as proposed in a petition submitted by an organization called Level the Playing Field.  Today, the Commission issued its formal Notice of Disposition explaining the rationale for its decision.  I joined the vote and the Notice of Disposition for the reasons stated in that document and at the Commission’s meeting on July 16, 2015.

I write separately, however, to express more fundamental concerns with the Commission’s regulation of press organizations that sponsor candidate debates as part of their news coverage and programming.  For too long, the Commission has ignored the congressional and constitutional mandates to unconditionally protect the free press rights of media entities.  Our shared American democracy thrives only when government respects the media’s freedom and independence to inform the public about public affairs.  But thirty-five years ago, the Commission made a regulatory error that has encroached upon that autonomy ever since.

This statement traces the important role media organizations have played in our nation’s electoral debates before the Commission’s existence, explains the origins of the Commission’s 1979 regulatory mistake, and then details how that decision continues to impact media organizations and the citizens who benefit from the information they disseminate.