Czar Wars: Mark Lloyd Denies What He Has Said Or Written

Mark Lloyd, the FCC’s “Diversity Czar,” was caught in some substantial lies regarding what he has written or said.  He was quoted at Media Access Project as saying the following statements that are clearly not true.

Allow me to clear away some mud: I am not a Czar appointed by President Obama. I am not at the FCC to restore the Fairness Doctrine through the front door or the back door, or to carry out a secret plot funded by George Soros to get rid of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or any other conservative talk show host. I am not at the FCC to remove anybody, whatever their color, from power. I am not a supporter of Hugo Chavez. The right wing smear campaign has been, in a word – incredible, generating hate mail and death threats. It is the price we pay for freedom of speech. And I do support free speech.

So, the Media Research Center used Lloyd’s own words against him.

LLOYD LIE: That the “right-wing smear campaign” was “distorting my views about the First Amendment.”

TRUTH: From Lloyd’s 2006 book, Prologue to a Farce: Communication and Democracy in America:

“It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press.  This freedom is all too often an exaggeration … “[T]he purpose of free speech is warped to protect global corporations and block rules that would promote democratic governance.”

Excerpt: http://ow.ly/M5TI

LLOYD LIE: That the “right-wing smear campaign” incorrectly asserted that Lloyd is “a supporter of Hugo Chavez.”

TRUTH: Lloyd as the head of the Leadership Council for Civil Rights participating in a panel discussion:

“In Venezuela, with Chavez, is really an incredible revolution – a democratic revolution.  To begin to put in place things that are going to have an impact on the people of Venezuela.  The property owners and the folks who then controlled the media in Venezuela rebelled – worked, frankly, with folks here in the U.S. government – worked to oust him.  But he came back with another revolution, and then Chavez began to take very seriously the media in his country.”

Video: http://ow.ly/M5UE

LLOYD LIE: “I am not at the FCC to remove anybody, whatever their color, from power.”

TRUTH: Lloyd at the May of 2005 Conference on Media Reform: Racial Justice:

“Because we have really, truly good white people in important positions. And the fact of the matter is that there are a limited number of those positions. And unless we are conscious of the need to have more people of color, gays, other people in those positions we will not change the problem. We’re in a position where you have to say who is going to step down so someone else can have power.”

Audio: http://ow.ly/M5VX

So Mr. Lloyd, I think we have to change your title to “Lie Czar.”

Seriously though, did you actually think that we would let that pass?

Also, I would condemn any one making threats against Mr. Lloyd.  He may be a liar, but he doesn’t deserve to be threatened.  We have elections to change things in this country.  Mr. Lloyd will be back to making his radical statements in a different position before too long.  Maybe he can move to Chavezluala and help Hugo make sure that free speech never happens there again.