David Weigel
In 2014, a progressive activist named Loren Collins filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against Gilbert, arguing that the filmmaker had a responsibility to disclose his donors. The FEC finally weighed in last month, and in a typical 3-3 split decision — by law, the FEC is perpetually split between Democratic and Republican commissioners — Gilbert’s DVD mailing was considered “press,” not subject to donor disclosure, comparable to any political documentary…
In an interview, the victorious Gilbert said that he was clearly “a media entity like Fox News or Michael Moore or The Washington Post.” Collins’s complaint amounted to “liberal fascism,” and he fought it with the legal advice of prominent Washington conservatives Cleta Mitchell, D. Eric Lycan and Bradley Smith.
