Free Press Sends Letter to FCC, Congress in Support of Mark Lloyd

More than 50 civil rights, public interest and grassroots organizations sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission and congressional leaders supporting Mark Lloyd, the associate general counsel and chief diversity officer of the FCC, and the agency's longstanding mission to promote localism, diversity and competition in the media. Lloyd is the latest flashpoint for an issue that has been hot for months, tied to proposed FCC localism initiatives, proposed then Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, that could include local programming advisory boards. Those boards have been viewed by some critics of localism proposals as a back-door version of the Fairness Doctrine, though FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has on several occasions said he would not re-impose the doctrine. That is the doctrine, scrapped by the FCC in 1987, that required broadcasters to actively seek out and air opposing views on issues of public importance. Its demise helped give rise to conservative talk radio.