According to Richard Viguerie, a well known conservative, Congress is trying to pass a bill to force bloggers and grassroots organizations to register as lobbyists.
He claims that "The bill would require reporting of 'paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying,' but defines 'paid' merely as communications to 500 or more members of the public, with no other qualifiers."
However, if you go look up the bill (S.1, Section 220) then you discover that it does indeed define paid efforts with qualifiers other than 500 or more members of the public:
The term `paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying' means any paid attempt in support of lobbying contacts on behalf of a client to influence the general public or segments thereof to contact one or more covered legislative or executive branch officials (or Congress as a whole) to urge such officials (or Congress) to take specific action with respect to a matter described in section 3(8)(A), except that such term does not include any communications by an entity directed to its members, employees, officers, or shareholders.
Richard Viguerie is either lying or has lost his facilities to read anything other than what he wants to see. It is particularly egregious since he mentions the section in his article.
If I am paid by the Democratic Party to be shill for their policies, then I should have to disclose that fact. That's not a free speech issue, that is a transparency issue. I am paid by no entity to shill for anything; I state what I believe.