Coalition Letter Backs Controversial FCC Diversity Chief Lloyd

Mark Lloyd

Embattled FCC Associate General Counsel and Chief Diversity Officer MARK LLOYD got some support from a coalition of 50 civil rights and activist groups, who sent a letter asking the Commission to support LLOYD against attacks from conservatives, who are upset about LLOYD's previously-expressed views against conservative Talk radio.  

Among the signatories to the letter are liberal groups CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS and FREE PRESS; the letter asks the Commission to "speak out against the falsehoods and misinformation that are threatening to derail important work by Congress and the FCC on media and technology policies that would benefit all Americans."

Conservatives including PREMIERE's GLENN BECK have noted that LLOYD, while at the CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS, had authored a report called "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio" and a later essay, "Forget the Fairness Doctrine," in which LLOYD laid out a strategy that involved liberals filing complaints against conservative Talk stations and policies of equal opportunity employment practices, local engagement, and license challenges to force "balance" without needing a reinstitution of the Fairness Doctrine. 

LLOYD also proposed that stations which do not want to "be subject to local criticism of how they are meeting their license obligations" pay a fee to be distributed to public broadcasting.  The coalition letter calls the claims about LLOYD's reports "false and misleading."

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