Mark Lloyd is the new FCC Chief Diversity Officer and Associate General Counsel for the Obama administration. His picture here is from a post at civilrights.org which states he is a staff member of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund. This was dated July 29, 2009. Their Executive Committee includes leaders of AARP, Asian American Justice Center, ACLU, AFL/CIO, and SEIU to name a few. So, I guess, he is a civil rights activist.
You may want to pay serious attention to what he does going forward to see, if or how, his actions might affect free speech in America. For example, he is one of a number of people who co-authored a report in 2007 titled, “The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio,” which seeks to change the structure of the media. In a follow-up article, Lloyd wrote the report did not call for a return to the Fairness Doctrine but wants more local ownership. He also said; "We trace the rise and influence of Rush and other conservative radio hosts to relaxed ownership rules and other pro-big business regulation that destroyed localism..."
In a speech before the lefist National Conference for Media Reform last year he highlighted Rwanda and Venezula for their ability to make social change through state run media (see below for video). Talk about disturbing.
Is Lloyd in a position of power to actually make sweeping leftist changes to the FCC?
Update 8/27/09: CNSNews wrote about his 2006 book Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America
” ....Lloyd also said that public broadcasting should be funded through new license fees charged to the nation’s private radio and television broadcasters, and that new regulatory fees should be used to fund eight new regional FCC offices. These offices would be responsible for monitoring political advertising and commentary, children’s educational programs, number of commercials, and content ratings of the programs...Frequently referencing one of his heroes, left-wing activist Saul Alinsky, Lloyd claims in his book that the history of American communications policy has been one of continued corporate control of every form of communication from the telegraph to the Internet...Government, Lloyd said in his book, is the “only” institution that can manage the communications of the public, arguing that Washington must “ensure” that everyone has an equal ability to communicate..."
The government is the only institution that can manage the communication of the public? Are you kidding me? I haven't read this book yet but the author of the article apparently did. It's possible his book could be at your local library so you can read it for yourself.
Update 8/28/09: In a 1998 Essay, Lloyd said the Republican communication policy hurts minorities.
Update 12/15/09: FCC Diversity Officer Lloyd Vociferously Denies Things He’s Written and Said on Tape
...Because we have a written, video and audio archive of his thoughts, positions and policy prescriptions. So we know the differences between what he has said in the past, and what he claimed yesterday to have said in the past.
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Videos: Lloyd spoke at the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform:NCMR 2008 Media Reform and Social Change w/Mark Lloyd 1/2 (8.38 min)
NCMR 2008 Media Reform and Social Change w/Mark Lloyd 2/2
In this video Lloyd discusses two countries and their ability to be able to make social change through their state TV: Rwanda and Venezuela. This is beyond disturbing:
mass genocide was able to be committed by state radio in Rwanda---Chavez led an incredible revolution - a democratic revolution ------- media and social change ---
Also see:
AmericanProgress 2004 archive page on Mark Lloyd: states he was a as a reporter and producer at NBC and CNN, and a consultant to the Clinton White House. He also worked for George Soros Open Society.
Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, a project of the Tides Center. Lloyd was the executive director in 1994 according to this archived page.
An affiliate of the Asian American Justice Center mentioned in the post abouve is the Asian Law Caucus:
zTruth : Asian Law Caucus claims Muslims are being targeted advise ...
Saul Alinsky:
Saul David Alinsky He is generally considered to be the founder of modern community organizing in America. He was from Chicago, Wikipeda (9/1/09 Wikipedia removed the word "communist")
Saul Alinsky on McCarthyism and Woodlawn (he said he never joined any organization - even the ones he created!
Book Reveille for Radicals by Saul Alinsky
---Random House, Inc. Academic Resources | Reveille for Radicals by ...
---Mere tolerance is not enough (excerpt from book for a college course) at Virgina Tech
Book: Rules for Radicals Amazon
Word for Word | Saul Alinsky New York Times Noam Cohen
Aug 22, 2009 This article claims that the angry citizens at Town Hall meetings got their approach from Alinsky!
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Excuse my ignorance, but,exactly what does the title, "Chief Diversity Officer" mean? after reading this report and others, it literally scares the "crap" out me! I have never trusted Obama and believe he has his own agendga concerning his efforts for socialized government. If he gets away with enforcing private sectors of the media to pay fees that equal the costs of private communication business, he is essentially killing our 1st amendment and denying American citizens the right to "free speech". More and more I find striking similarties to the book of Revelations and the predictions of a "World Order" masterminded by one person for the dominance of one govt. led by an "anti-christ" or in otherwords a self serving lunatic. Hmmmmm....come to think of it, wasn't that already tried? I believe his name was "Hitler". Perhaps it's true, history does repeat itself, but it doesn't have to if the American people would get off their duffs and stand up and deny anyone in the government to "socialize" our America. Where are the "public servants"? Wasn't the constitution written on the premise that "America" would be a free nation unlike any other? I wonder if this goes on, anyone objecting to this insanity will be turned in like the Nazis'used to do to keep objections and the people under their thumb...Obama has already sold our souls to China for an astronomical price and now all China has to do is sit by and when the time is right....call in their marker! God help us...!
Posted by: Carol J. Shafer | August 26, 2009 at 08:28 PM
Carol - "Diversity" refers to diversity in media ownership. As in, we can't let GE and Ted Turner control the media. Of course, this also means that Rupert Murdoch's media empire is also on the chopping block.
The idea would be that we go back to the era of the 50's, 60's & 70's where journalists had ranking authority over the content of their programs (not the corporate advertisers) and companies were not allowed to own monopolies on the news - the TV, Radio, and Newspapers for entire markets. Today, a single man can control 80% of the message for entire regions of the country giving that man an enormous amount of power.
The other issue is that the FCC would pressure news organizations to restore actual journalists to news programs instead of entertainers or commentators that deliver the bulk of the news to America. So bye bye to ex-sports casters like Keith Olberman. If Keith were to remain, he would be pressed to cite the source of his claims during the news hour and include dissenting views along side of his hand picked yes men. Of course, the same standards would be applied to guys like Beck, Limbaugh, and Hannity.
Posted by: Jim Jones | August 26, 2009 at 11:05 PM
Jim, it is much more than just diversity of ownership. You didn't mention Lloyd's goal to create 8 FCC offices that will monitor (i.e., possible control of content) of local media. Furthermore, Lloyd's video comments about how Rwanda and Venezuela made social changes via state-owned TV is very, very worrisome. Rwanda commented genocide as a result. Chavez became a dictator as a result. Lloyd praised Chavez.
Posted by: zTruth | September 01, 2009 at 07:34 AM