FCC “Diversity Czar” No Longer Available For Public Comments or Interviews

posted at 8:35 am on October 6, 2009 by Rovin
[ Fairness Doctrine ]    printer-friendly

The FCC—which controls communications policy for the public—has decided to not allow interviews of their Chief Diversity Officer Mark Lloyd. As I wrote back in August about the newly created position, Mark Lloyd has suggested that public broadcasting companies be financed by private broadcaster licencing fees imposed by the FCC. Lloyd has a “checkered” past that includes drawing on the tactics of Saul Alinsky to combat against these mean commercial broadcasters. When CNSNews attempted to interview Lloyd, they were told he is off limits as all “other staffers”. Later, FCC Communications Director David Fiske made an attempt to “clarify” the FCC’s policy with a confusing confliction of statements:

CNSNews.com attempted to interview Lloyd Friday at a public forum held by the FCC. CNSNews.com wanted to ask the FCC diversity chief about policy recommendations he made in his 2006 book Prologue to a Farce and in papers written for the liberal Center for American Progress about changing media ownership rules in the United States, the role of public broadcasting, and the influence of 1960′s radical Saul Alinksy on his views.

FCC Communications Director David Fiske said that like any other federal agency, the FCC does not allow its staff members to be interviewed about themselves or their views, past or present, because it might compromise their ability to make recommendation to policymakers.

“It’s not that staff don’t do interviews, [but] they aren’t personages who do interviews about themselves and their input,” Fiske told CNSNews.com. “The Commission as a whole gets input from dozens of sources. Each commissioner hires their own staff; Chairman [Julius] Genachowski has actually made some comments about [Lloyd].” 

Commissioners, Fiske said, were the policymakers at FCC and therefore the proper people to interview about what sources and ideas are influencing the Commission’s decisions.  LINK

Got that? Public policy/input written by FCC staffers might be compromised if they are interviewed about their past and present beliefs. But, this “staffer” comes from a background that has more “input” to the commissioners than Mr. Fiske would have us believe. Lloyd, while lobbying the FCC during the Clinton administration certainly did not attempt to hide his agenda here:

“We understood at the beginning, and were certainly reminded in the course of the campaign,” wrote Lloyd, “that our work was not simply convincing policy makers of the logic or morality of our arguments. We understood that we were in a struggle for power against an opponent, the commercial broadcasters ….”

“We looked to successful political campaigns and organizers as a guide, especially the civil rights movement, Saul Alinsky, and the campaign to prevent the Supreme Court nomination of the ultra-conservative jurist Robert Bork,” wrote Lloyd. “From those sources we drew inspiration and guidance.”

It seems quite clear that the FCC plans to keep their views unpublished on how the public and private airwaves will be governed. Critics and concerned citizens need not inquire.

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