Are the new Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) blogger rules just another White House attempt at trampling the US Constitution? Apparently the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) seems to think so. Not only that, but the IAB thinks that the White House-friendly media gets Constitutional protection, while the new media is discriminated against. The FTC's guidelines are set to go into effect at the beginning of December 2009.

“ The practices have long been afforded strong First Amendment protections in traditional media outlets, but the Commission is saying that the same speech deserves fewer Constitutional protections online”, reads in part an open letter to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz by Randall Rothenberg, the President and CEO of the IAB. In the letter, IAB calls the FTC’s distinction between offline media and online media, "constitutionally dubious…. What concerns us the most in these revisions is that the Internet, the cheapest, most widely accessible communications medium ever invented, would have less freedom than other media" Rothenberg said.

“I urge the Commission to retract the current set of Guides and to commence a fair and open process in order to develop a road map by which responsible online actors can engage with consumers and continue to provide the invaluable content and services that have so transformed people’s lives" Rothenberg added.

And just like the Health Care legislation, the new guidelines appear to be written by attorneys for attorneys. Considerer that the new FTC guidelines contain a number of gray areas which makes it difficult for bloggers to determine exactly what a sponsored post is. These areas include several categories such as : Access, incentive, thank you, product demonstration, advertising/editorial, paid reviews, junk and pay to play. Then there is the issue of character restrictions, such as Twitter. Some say that disclosure on Twitter is impossible. Is hashtag like #ad is enough, for instance?

What is required for now is a suspension of disbelief on constitutionality of the new FTC Blogger Rules.