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FEC OKs Stephen Colbert's 'Super PAC'

Stephen Colbert at last October's "Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear" on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Saul Loeb
/
AFP/Getty Images
Stephen Colbert at last October's "Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear" on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Comedian Stephen Colbert can launch a so-called super political action committee and, in theory, raise unlimited amounts of campaign cash for the 2012 political season, USA Today's On Politics blog reports.

The Comedy Central star got the OK this morning thanks to a 5-1 vote by the Federal Election Commission. The legal issues involved whether Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, would be making "in-kind" contributions to candidates if Stephen does this. According to the FEC, he qualifies — mostly — for a media exemption from restrictions.

In case you haven't been following Stepehen's bid to be like Karl Rove and his other "heroes," there are plenty of videos in which he's laid out his grand plan.

Later today, NPR's Peter Overby is due to explain how a super PAC works on All Things Considered.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.