Now why would a “Diversity Czar” worry anyone?

A Diversity Czar for the FCC? Yes that worries me! A lot!

Last month, Mark Lloyd was granted the rather Orwellian title of “Chief Diversity Officer” at the FCC. In his 2006 book Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America (University of Illinois Press), Lloyd recommended that private broadcasters be forced to, in effect, heavily subsidize their competition: those public broadcasters that already receive millions in taxpayer dollars each year.

This financially onerous combination of fines and fees — amounting to an estimated $100-million and $250-million each and every year — would essentially force many private broadcasters out of business. It’s hard for some cynics not to wonder if that might not be the whole idea.

Lloyd has repeatedly stated that he opposes the reintstatement of the Fairness Doctrine, but that’s only because he’s come up with other ways to castrate conservative talk radio. Naturally, these strategies all come complete with the usual, harmless-sounding calls for “diversity” and “community.”

Seton Motley, of the conservative Media Research Center, said Lloyd “laid out a battle plan” in a 2007 report for the George Soros-funded progressive think tank, Center for American Progress.

According to Motley, Lloyd wanted “the FCC to threaten stations’ licenses with whom they do not agree with politically, and now he’s at the FCC waiting to take their calls. This is not about serving the local interest, it’s about political opposition.”