Silencing Talk Radio in the Name of Diversity

The Orwellian Fairness Doctrine is behind us for good; too many realize that stifling political dissent on the airwaves is anything but fair. But that doesn't mean our moonbat rulers have suddenly acquired respect for freedom of speech . As with many of our liberties, the First Amendment will now be attacked under the banner of diversity:

Mark Lloyd, newly appointed Chief Diversity Officer of the Federal Communications Commission, has called for making private pay licensing fees equal to their total operating costs to allow public broadcasting outlets to spend the same on their operations as the private companies do.

You don't have to re-read that, you got it right the first time, private companies WILL be paying for the (liberal) air time of public broadcasting.

Private companies need to make profits. Therefore they will carry programming people want to hear: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, etc. In addition to economically breaking the kneecaps of these companies, Lloyd wants to funnel their money into public broadcasting, which is financed coercively and therefore couldn't care less what people want to hear.

Like all liberal bureaucrats, Lloyd is as authoritarian as he is greedy:

"Federal and regional broadcast operations and local stations should be funded at levels commensurate with or above those spending levels at which commercial operations are funded," Lloyd wrote. "This funding should come from license fees charged to commercial broadcasters. Funding should not come from congressional appropriations. Sponsorship should be prohibited at all public broadcasters."

Along with this money, Lloyd would regulate much of the programming on these stations to make sure they focused on "diverse views" and government activities.

"Diverse views" refers to the entire spectrum from left-wing propaganda to more left-wing propaganda. How many El Rushbos has NPR produced?

In addition to "diversity," tyrannical bureaucrats will also use "localism" to stifle speech that undermines their rule.

"Local public broadcasters and regional and national communications operations should be required to encourage and broadcast diverse views and programs," wrote Lloyd. "These programs should include coverage of all local, state and federal government meetings, as well as daily news and public issues programming."

Don't live in South Florida? Then Rush isn't local. You get to listen to the local water board meeting instead.

Lloyd also believes in diversity of ownership, which would mean denying broadcast licenses to Caucasians based on their race.

Once we allow government to become massively too large, it's only a matter of time before the wrong people get behind the wheel and steer our republic over the cliff into totalitarianism. This is happening before our eyes.