Posted on 08/12/2009 9:19:02 AM PDT by Kaslin
Mark Lloyd has recently been appointed “Chief Diversity Officer” at the Federal Communications Commission. Conservative groups believe his installation is merely another way to impose the dangerous principles contained in the Fairness Doctrine.
Lloyd is a longtime Democrat activist who has strategized about ways to censor conservative media under the guise of “local accountability.” In 2007, he co-wrote a report that called for, among other things, the restoration of local and national caps on the ownership of commercial radio stations and fines for commercial radio station owners if their stations didn’t air enough “progressive” content. Those fines would go directly into the pockets of liberal competitors with fewer listeners.
“Our conclusion is that the gap between conservative and progressive talk radio is the result of multiple structural problems in the U.S. regulatory system, particularly the complete breakdown of the public trustee concept of broadcast, the elimina¬tion of clear public interest requirements for broadcasting, and the relaxation of ownership rules,” he wrote.
In addition to having this new CDO title, Lloyd will also assume the title of Associate General Counsel, giving him what seems to be a substantial amount of authority to pursue these objectives. But Seton Motley, Director of Communications for the Media Research Center, said that there is no way of knowing at this point how much authority Lloyd will have.
“We frankly don’t know what role the CDO will play,” he said.
Lloyd’s past work includes stints at the Center for American Progress (CAP) and vice president of strategic initiatives at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR). CAP is funded by the liberal financier George Soros and LCCR focuses on representing “persons of color, women, children, labor unions, individuals with disabilities, older Americans, major religious groups, gays and lesbians and civil liberties and human rights groups.”
In a blog post, LCCR praised the selection of Lloyd by saying that he will “help the FCC to develop communications policy that will increase media diversity and address the needs of low-income people, women, minorities, people with disabilities.” The LCCR and Lloyd have been careful to distance themselves from the notion that they support the Fairness Doctrine, while actually backing every principle the doctrine stands for.
“We call for ownership rules that we think will create greater local diversity of programming, news, and commentary. And we call for more localism by putting teeth into the licensing rules,” he wrote in an article on CAP’s website titled “Forget the Fairness Doctrine.” “But we do not call for a return to the Fairness Doctrine.”
Motley isn't convinced.
“They don’t want equality of opportunity, they want equality of outcomes – giving equal time for people who get listeners and people who don’t,” he said.
Shouldn’t that be “Diversity Czar”?
Don’t try to make it fair, just dilute it.
You took the words out of my mouth and posted them here...
Liberal talk shows cannot make money. The problem for them is they are all shrill jerks and conspiracy theory jags. The free market has exposed the liberals and their agenda in the purest way. Obama and company will do whatever they must to fix that - especially since it means stepping on the 1st Amendment rights of conservatives.
These peckerhead losers are like toxic water seeking its own level, and ALWAYS finding a way “to get in”.
Dang it! Late again.
This is part of the POTUS’s afroturf campaign. Rather than let the market decide who to listen to, Obama wants to force his racial agenda on us. The best way is to take control of the only form of mass communication that thus far eludes him, and that is talk radio.
Just like he is using his race cronies to afroturf the health care debate (think the AARP run by a big time Obama supporter who is going totally against the wishes of his members to support socialized health care), he wants to stifle all forms of dissent by using ‘diversity’ to diminish conservative viewpoints. Very dangerous what he is doing because the people are catching on to his strategy.
Prof Gates/Sgt Crowley revealed what Obama thought he buried with his race speech after Rev Wright debacle. That is that Obama, for all his talk of being post partisan, post racial, etc., is willing to play the race card when it suits his purposes.
I’m sure his first order of business will be shepherding a request made by minority station owners for a bailout. The largest black station in Pittsburgh was sold to a group that is planning to run Catholic religious programming, setting off alarm bells in the Diversity Broadcast community. Supposedly the owners were flat-broke and had to sell, so the others are now looking for a taxpayer bailout to keep the airwaves “diverse”.
As I said in the reply following yours, the Left does not consider itself subject to the logical strictures of the marketplace, which is why they so strenuously analyze and promote the myriad ways through which they can promote their way into political viability-—the concepts of unfairness, and victimage have always been central to their worldview because nothing else begins to explain how “marginalized” they think, and want everyone else to think they’ve become. Never underestimate the absolute contempt they have for the whole concept of the marketplace. They are intent on forcing their entirely counterfeit construction of a levelled playing field invading and paving over the real marketplace.
NOW THAT THEY’VE BEEN ELECTED, they seem miffed that they still have SO MUCH WORK TO DO.
How about diversity commisar?
They know that normal people will just switch to the internet and abandon talk radio. That’s why the leftist wackos want desperately to control the internet.
The War on freedom continues
Now they’re trying to tell people who to listen to. Isn’t there such a thing as freedom of hearing?
More Marxism at work.
Great! I’m sure his first action will be to mandate Larry Elder on the dial across the nation, right? I miss my Sage from South Central!
Obama went over the line with DeathCare (tm). People are now so full of his crap that they have become a permanent anti-Obama force in our politics. Radio censorhip will just create another firestorm. As someone said, ‘Just wait. In a year they will have so far over-reached that the public, in a fit of revulsion, will throw them out of office.’
They’ll just kill AM radio. We conservatives will go to the satellite.
Within a few years, only cable TV and satellite will be profitable.
BTTT
Would they block it like they do in China
This is frightening. Far left incrementalism for sure. I'll ping my list here in a few minutes...
And the wealthy GOP coupon clippers thought AA would only effect slubs like firemen, dang funny how that works out.
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