RadioBanter - FCC Diversity Chief Asked Liberal Fascists to Copy FDR, Take onLimbaugh, Murdoch, Supreme Court

(CNSNews.com) – Federal Communications Commission Chief Diversity
Officer Mark Lloyd called on fellow liberals to follow the model of
former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and challenge conservative
media moguls and station owners, particularly figures such as Rush
Limbaugh, Rupert Murdoch, and “a pro-big business Supreme Court
aligned” with them.

Lloyd made the call in a 2007 article for the liberal

Center for American Progress http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/g...asp?grpid=6709

while he was a senior fellow there.

Entitled “Media Maneuvers: Why the Rush to Waive Cross-Ownership
Bans,” the article ostensibly talks about the Federal Communications
Commission’s (FCC) decision to allow Chicago real estate mogul Sam
Zell to purchase the then-failing Chicago Tribune Co., owner of the
Chicago Tribune newspaper.

Lloyd, however, uses the Zell case, in which Zell ultimately
prevailed, to make a broader argument that liberals should look to the
tactics employed by FDR to combat his conservative critics in the
media, saying that liberals must challenge outspoken conservatives who
own media outlets.

“Progressives should take a page from FDR’s media diversity playbook,”
Lloyd wrote. “[A]t the end of a second FDR administration [in 1940]
when the New Dealers were still battling a conservative print media
and a conservative Supreme Court to fix the great debacle of American
capitalism – the Great Depression.

“FDR’s fireside chats and his ready access to radio allowed him to
speak directly to Americans and continue to push a progressive
agenda,” said Lloyd. “But FDR was becoming increasingly concerned
about the purchase of radio operations by the newspaper publishers.”

Former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lloyd highlights one
Roosevelt tactic in particular, using the Justice Department to take
his conservative media critics to court on anti-trust grounds. He
highlights the case of then Chicago Tribune publisher Col. Robert R.
McCormick, a stalwart Roosevelt critic.

Says Lloyd: “One of the most vehement Roosevelt-haters was Col. Robert
R. McCormick, the longtime editor and publisher of the Chicago
Tribune. McCormick considered it his duty to remove Roosevelt from
office and he used every means at his disposal to further this aim,
including his radio station WGN (AM).

“But there is little doubt that FDR understood what he was up
against,” wrote Lloyd. “He understood not only how to use media
effectively, but also the importance of media ownership and the rules
that determined media ownership.”

Roosevelt took the Associated Press and McCormick, an AP member, to
court, alleging that they were engaged in illegal, monopolistic
practices. Ultimately, a then Roosevelt-friendly Supreme Court ruled
that the First Amendment did not give newspapers the right to be
monopolies.

Lloyd referenced the case to call on liberals to act like Roosevelt
and challenge what he saw as conservative dominance in media.

“Just as FDR and the New Deal Progressives understood that media
consolidation posed a major problem in a democracy, modern
progressives need to understand the importance of this battle,” said
Lloyd.

He warned that Zell, who tended to support conservative politicians,
could be a modern-day McCormick, ready to ally with other conservative
media moguls such as Rupert Murdoch and Rush Limbaugh against
liberals.

“[T]he vast majority of Zell’s political contributions go to support
conservative candidates and causes,” wrote Lloyd. “Is Zell a modern
Col. McCormick waiting in the wings to join forces with Rupert Murdoch
and Rush Limbaugh?”

Lloyd said such conservatives were “frantic” to get favorable
ownership regulations in place before liberals could re-take Congress
and the White House in 2008.

“Conservatives, including conservatives in media, are frantic to get a
wide range of regulations that favor the interests of big business in
place as soon as possible,” wrote Lloyd. “They are justifiably
concerned that a public fed up with seven years of failed conservative
policies in Iraq, a souring economy, and rising health care costs will
put a stronger progressive voice in Congress and in the White House.”

Lloyd warned that conservatives such as Limbaugh and Murdoch were in
league with a “pro-big business” Supreme Court and ready to battle the
incoming liberal majority, just like in FDR’s day.

“A pro-big business Supreme Court aligned with Murdoch, Limbaugh, and
Zell and ready to battle a progressive in the White House begins to
sound a lot like the early years of the FDR administration,” said
Lloyd. “Will progressives sound like FDR and commit to creating a
media policy that actually serves democracy and promotes diverse and
antagonistic sources of news?”

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/53136

HEIL 0baMa0 HITLER!