Dick Morris claimed anti-Clinton movie can't be screened, but film's executive producer says otherwise

On the January 14 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Fox News contributor Dick Morris alleged that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) "won't let us run" the recently released Hillary: The Movie (Citizens United Productions), a film about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), "in movie theaters." Morris added: "The Clinton appointees [on the FEC] are blocking it." But Morris' claim that the movie cannot be screened is reportedly contradicted by the film's executive producer, David N. Bossie. Bossie, a Republican activist and discredited former congressional staffer, was quoted in a January 16 Washington Times article saying: "I can put it in theaters, I just can't let anybody know it's there," referring to an FEC requirement that Citizens United comply with disclosure requirements under campaign finance law to advertise the film.

In December 2007, Citizens United filed a complaint against the FEC regarding the film's advertising. According to the organization's press release, the suit "argu[ed] that issue-oriented television ads are protected by the First Amendment and should not be subject to disclosure requirements under McCain-Feingold campaign finance law." From the release:

As it prepares to release its hard-hitting political documentary, Hillary: The Movie, Citizens United, a grassroots advocacy organization, led by election law attorney James Bopp, Jr., today filed suit against the Federal Election Commission, arguing that issue-oriented television ads are protected by the First Amendment and should not be subject to disclosure requirements under McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

At issue are sections of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act ("McCain-Feingold") that imposed a blackout period before elections on television advertisements that mentioned the name of a federal candidate -- "electioneering communications." Earlier this year, the United States Supreme Court, in Federal Election Commission vs. Wisconsin Right to Life, ruled that groups could not be prohibited from running "genuine issue ads," during the blackout period, but the FEC has insisted that such groups must still put disclaimers on the ads and file reports about the ads, including naming their contributors. Citizens United is challenging these disclosure requirements, arguing the ads for the film, Hillary: The Movie, is a commercial ad, exempted in recent FEC rulemaking, and that disclosure requirements cannot be applied to such ads consistent with the First Amendment.....

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