The Stop Online Piracy Act resistance continues to draw players from both sides of the ideological aisle.
This week, the Free Press Action Fund blasted MPAA President Chris Dodd for threatening to cut off money to politicians who dared to block the unpopular legislation.
As a result, the media reform group wants politicians who previously pocketed Hollywood cash to return those checks, or at the least send the money to a charitable cause instead.
It all started with a tersely worded statement Dodd gave to Fox News regarding SOPA, according to a press release Free Press fired off this week:
After Congress shelved two controversial Web-censorship bills, Dodd told Fox News: “Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.”
Free Press Action Fund President and CEO Craig Aaron made the following statement:
“The MPAA is so brazen in its efforts to buy legislation with campaign cash that its leader, himself a former senator, sees nothing wrong with threatening legislators on national TV. We think it’s time that Congress showed that its votes are no longer for sale. The first thing Congress must do is give back the MPAA’s tainted campaign cash or give it to charity. Congress must make it clear to the world that it won’t be bullied into supporting censorship.
“Last week’s unprecedented grassroots uprising, in which millions mobilized against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act, clearly got Washington’s attention. And we’ve since seen dozens of legislators scrambling to show they were really against these bills all along. But the real test is whether they will put their money where their mouths are by returning the MPAA’s dirty money.”
Free Press bills itself as a nonpartisan entity, although it’s stacked with plenty of liberals. That isn’t stopping it from attacking an industry which usually does its bidding, no questions asked.