“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
Then-president-elect Barack Obama
“I am going to offer up evidence that part of the strategy of the fundamental transformation of America is to silence dissent,” writes Glenn Beck. Beck goes on to say that when he finished his research on “one of the most diabolical hidden parts of the plan,” he felt, for the first time, truly frightened. The part of the plan that Beck refers to is new diversity “czar” at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Mark Lloyd. Here’s how government interference in radio started.
As Beck reports, when radio was booming in the 1920s, government wasn’t even involved. It got involved later, in 1927, only to prevent radio frequencies from bleeding into each other. At this time, government did not control the content. However, this changed in 1934 when the FCC was created, allowing FDR to use radio as a propaganda machine. In 1949, the FCC instated the Fairness Doctrine obligating radio companies to report both sides of political issues. This changed in 1987 when, under the Reagan administration, it was decided no longer to enforce the Fairness Doctrine.
Mark Lloyd wrote an article entitled “Forget the Fairness Doctrine,” in which he says, “The other part of our proposal that gets the dittoheads upset is our suggestion that the commercial radio station owners either play by the rules or pay.” He means that his plan would circumvent the Fairness Doctrine through localism and diversity. He proposes that radio companies pay 100% of their operating budgets in tax, yearly. The 100% tax would go to state-run NPR. Any company that couldn’t pay the tax-and of course not many could-would lose its license, which would then be sold to a minority group.
In his 2006 book, Prologue to a Farce: Communications and Democracy in America, Lloyd writes, “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…. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies.”
Is the strategy of the fundamental transformation of America to silence dissent? If it is, then we should all be truly frightened.
E.J. Smith is Managing Director of Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. an investment advisory firm managing portfolios for investors with over $1,000,000 in investable assets.
