Free Republic

Having been in the position of watching my favored candidate stumble badly in an endorsement session while a more liberal Republican alternative hit all the right notes, I reserved my opinion on the goings-on in the recent Congressional race in New York's 23 Congressional District. Now that it is over, I have concluded that while the local Republican Party leadership's endorsement of Dede Scozzafava may have been a what-in-the-world-were-they-thinking moment, I suspect that many would now be saying, "Can't they do any better than this?", had they had endorsed Doug Hoffman from the beginning. While Hoffman may have hit most...

First Amendment: Diversity czar Mark Lloyd's FCC votes Thursday on the issue of net neutrality. Advertised as providing access to all, it will do to the information superhighway what Lloyd proposed for talk radio. Not much was said when $7.2 billion was included in the stimulus bill "to accelerate broadband deployment in unserved and underserved areas and to strategic institutions that are likely to create jobs or provide significant public benefits." The administration has big plans for the Internet — like controlling it. Susan Crawford, the so-called Internet czar, told the Wall Street Journal in April that the broadband billions...

I happened to be flipping through radio stations when the thought occurred to me: The lack of local news can in some ways be attributed directly to the growth of government. Prior to progressive governance, as is constitutionally prescribed, local governments had the power. Therefore, local focus from media on local government made sense and was the focus.(and the laments from the left make it clear they actually do seem to miss local focus on governance in the news) Now that everything is washington, everything in the news is washington too. If it matters, I was listening to something on...

1st Amendment: Mark Lloyd, a disciple of Saul Alinsky and fan of Hugo Chavez, wants to destroy talk radio and says free speech is a distraction. The new FCC diversity "czar" says Venezuela is an example we should follow.When Mark Lloyd was appointed July 29 as the chief diversity officer at the Federal Communications Commission, a nation focused on ObamaCare and a deteriorating economy took little notice. But as angry constituents flood town hall meetings and call in to talk radio, a man dedicated to silencing them sits at the right hand of the president. They share a common hero...

Inspired by Saul Alinsky, FCC 'Diversity' Chief Calls for ‘Confrontational Movement’ to Give Public Broadcasting Dominant Role in Communications Wednesday, August 26, 2009 By Matt Cover (CNSNews.com) – Mark Lloyd, chief diversity officer of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), called for a “confrontational movement” to combat what he claimed was control of the media by international corporations and to re-establish the regulatory power of government through robust public broadcasting and a more powerful FCC. Lloyd expressed his regulatory call to arms in his 2006 book, “Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America” (University of Illinois Press). In the...

Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley has publicly released a letter he penned to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski regarding the July 29th announced appointment of new FCC Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd. In the press release accompanying the missive, the Senator said he was "concerned with the appointment due to Lloyd’s writings on political talk radio and the Fairness Doctrine."

We knew this was coming. We told you it would happen as far back as last year during the campaign. It is now official. Barack Obama has launched a full, frontal attack on conservative talk radio, and he is doing it without re-implementing 'the Fairness Doctrine.' But first, a bit of background.

Matt Cover at the Media Research Center's News Division, CNSNews.com, has a piece out today entitled "FCC’s Chief Diversity Officer Wants Private Broadcasters to Pay a Sum Equal to Their Total Operating Costs to Fund Public Broadcasting." This is insane. The "Chief Diversity Officer" in question, Mark Lloyd, is calling for the gross operating budget for every private radio station each year to be the fee (tax) they pay for their broadcast license for the year, with the monies going to the always liberal public stations. With whom they then must compete for listeners.

Mark Lloyd, newly appointed Chief Diversity Officer of the Federal Communications Commission, has called for making private broadcasting companies pay licensing fees equal to their total operating costs to allow public broadcasting outlets to spend the same on their operations as the private companies do. Lloyd presented the idea in his 2006 book, Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America, published by the University of Illinois Press. Lloyd’s hope is to dramatically upgrade and revamp the Corporation for Public Broadcasting through new funding drawn from private broadcasters. The CPB is a non-profit entity that was created by Congress...

Mark Lloyd, newly appointed Chief Diversity Officer of the Federal Communications Commission, has called for making private broadcasting companies pay licensing fees equal to their total operating costs to allow public broadcasting outlets to spend the same on their operations as the private companies do. Lloyd presented the idea in his 2006 book, Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America, published by the University of Illinois Press. Lloyd’s hope is to dramatically upgrade and revamp the Corporation for Public Broadcasting through new funding drawn from private broadcasters. The CPB is a non-profit entity that was created by Congress...

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...

WASHINGTON, DC-U.S. Congressman Mike Pence released the following statement in response to the news that the Democrat-majority Rules Committee had rejected the 'Broadcaster Freedom Amendment' which would have prevented the Federal Communications Commission from reinstating the so-called 'Fairness Doctrine' and enacting proposed broadcast localism regulations for the next fiscal year. All Democrats present voted against allowing the amendment to the Financial Services Appropriations Bill, which funds the FCC, on a final vote of 7-4.

Despite recent assurances that the Fairness Doctrine is a dead issue to the point of White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, along with reporters laughing off a question about its possible return, it will probably be coming back repackaged in a more odious form as localism according to a Broadcasting & Cable article by John Eggerton: Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps may have wished to drive a stake deep into the Fairness Doctrine issue. However, his recent comments on the subject have only helped keep it alive and kicking.In a speech two weeks ago, Copps said the doctrine was long...

I have enjoyed Oprah Winfrey’s work on television since she showed up as the second banana on People are Talking with Richard Scher on WJZ in Baltimore, four decades ago. Now, she is the leading talk show host in the known universe. Although her audience has decreased from nearly 9 million in 2005 to 7.3 million in 2008, she is still the top of her profession. Oprah’s success demonstrates that several efforts of the current Administration to restrict both freedom of the press, and freedom of speech are both wrong and unconstitutional. There is a proposed bill in Congress which...

The acting chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has told members of a "diversity" committee who almost exclusively represent left-leaning organizations to tackle the status quo in America's broadcast industry and suggest "aggressive" solutions to what they see as problems. According to The O'Leary Report, published by author Brad O'Leary, author of "Shut Up, America!: The End of Free Speech," the FCC's "Diversity Committee," headed by "Fairness Doctrine," supporter Henry Rivera, has begun its work. The report said the committee made it clear at a meeting yesterday its members will force President Obama's supporters into positions of power within the...

Let's face it folks, we have the liberal media on the ropes. Drive by newspapers are dying. liberal broadcasts are setting record lows. Liberal cable outlets are always claiming 2nd, 3rd, etc best to Fox. So what's the next step?

No Fairness Doctrine, says the FCC's Michael Copps. And if the interim Chairman of the FCC says that, and candidate Barack Obama said that - maybe some of talk radio's conservative voices will lower the Fear Factor volume. But "the return of the Fairness Doctrine" has been a great straw man - Copps' phrase - for conservatives. To be sure, there are Democrats on Congress who'd like to get even with the talk radio scene of the last 20 years and level the playing field (their term). But the Fairness Doctrine would surely be called unconstitutional today and politically, it's...

Most Americans are sleepwalking right now through the early reign of Obama the Magnificant. He tells them he is cutting spending, cutting taxes, and cutting the deficit, and they believe him. When they find in 2010 and 2011 that he deliberately misled them and has been doing just the opposite, and they are deep in the soup as a result, public opinion will turn decisively against him. Meanwhile, our "mainstream media," which should be called the Party Controlled Press, are quite successfully maintaining the smokescreen in promoting the Obama propaganda line, acting as slavishly as Pravda and Izvestia did towards...

Cass Sunstein sees Web as anti-democratic, proposed 24-hour delay on sending e-mail WASHINGTON – Barack Obama's nominee for "regulatory czar" has advocated a "Fairness Doctrine" for the Internet that would require opposing opinions be linked and also has suggested angry e-mails should be prevented from being sent by technology that would require a 24-hour cooling off period. The revelations about Cass Sunstein, Obama's friend from the University of Chicago Law School and nominee to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, come in a new book by Brad O'Leary, "Shut Up, America! The End of Free Speech."...

Putting aside their own competitive interests, representatives of more than two dozen of the nation's top talk shows held an unprecedented private meeting over the weekend to brainstorm strategies against what they agreed are government plans by to squelch critical political speech on radio. Organized by Brad O'Leary, author of the new book, "Shut Up, America! The End of Free Speech," and Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND, the group chose one attendee to be spokesman and chairman of the coalition – syndicated host Roger Hedgecock of San Diego . A daylong discussion today focused on what...