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Top Senate Republican Fears FCC's 'Diversity' Chief May Use 'Back Door' to Regulate Talk Radio
(CNSNews.com) -- In a letter sent last week to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Sen. Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa) said he is concerned that the FCC's new "diversity" director, Mark Lloyd, may seek to regulate talk radio through the "back door."Grassley, who expressed his concerns in a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski on Friday, said he was concerned that the new diversity chief would implement a back-door return of the "Fairness Doctrine," a now-defunct policy which mandated that broadcasters devote equal airtime to both sides of controversial issues. A return to the Fairness Doctrine would spell the end of opinionated talk radio. "Taken together, these statements represent a view that the FCC needs to expand its regulatory arm further into the commercial radio market," Grassley wrote. "I am concerned that despite his statements that the Fairness Doctrine is unnecessary, Mr. Lloyd supports a backdoor method of furthering the goals of the Fairness Doctrine by other means." Grassley said he "strongly disagreed" that government needs to regulate radio any further, saying that greater government involvement would not provide for a greater diversity of views on the airwaves. "Simply put, I strongly disagree with Mr. Lloyd," said Grassley. "I do not believe that more regulation, more taxes or fines, or increased government intervention in the commercial radio market will serve the public interest or further the goals of diversifying the marketplace." Grassley's concerns arise from an paper Lloyd co-authored for the liberal Center for American Progress entitled, "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio." In this paper, Lloyd and his fellow co-authors laid out what they say are the "structural problems" of the nation's radio regulatory system that they believe explains the success of conservative talk radio. The authors said these problems should remedied by increased government involvement. "Our conclusion is that the gap between conservative and progressive talk radio is the result of multiple structural problems in the U.S. regulatory system," the report said, "particularly the complete breakdown of the public trustee concept of broadcast, the elimination of clear public interest requirements for broadcasting, and the relaxation of ownership rules, including the requirement of local participation in management." Posted by: Fred 2009-08-19 |
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