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Lawmakers Demand Investigation into FCC Chairman Ajit Pai
- kapauldo 9y agoFlagged! Quick before someone opines!
- sctb 9y agoCould you please stop violating the guidelines and post civilly and substantively instead? We've asked you several times and we'll ban the account if you won't. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- Karunamon 9y ago>We contacted Chairman Pai's office today, and a spokesperson provided this response: >Unfortunately, this request appears to be part of many Democrats' attempt to target one particular company because of its perceived political views... Politics as usual, then. The stated reason for doing something is usually not the actual reason. I'm glad to see someone is standing up to this industry crony nonetheless, doing the right thing for the wrong reason is still doing the right thing.
- dragonwriter 9y agoThe fact that the office of the “crony” in question says the investigation has a particular motive is very far from dispositive evidence that that is the motivation.
- Karunamon 9y agoQuite true, but given the current state of politics, it would surprise me more to know that the lawmakers were acting entirely in the interests of their constituents, rather than another volley in some pointless ego vendetta. It's not as if there are any negative consequences for the latter.
- abiox 9y agocurrent state... seems to me that this has been normal for a very long time.
- bo1024 9y agoI'm not sure why you would trust any statements from Pai's office given their history of partisanship and misinformation. I'm pretty cynical about all politician's motivations, but this statement doesn't hold up. If the FCC really is cheating to benefit one political party or company, then it would be impossible to accuse them of cheating without implicitly targeting that party or company. (Edit: In other words, their statement gives no information that helps distinguish whether the FCC is cheating or whether they are just being unfairly targeted by Democrats. It only points fingers.) The statement is focusing the issue on politics in order to distract attention from the actual issue. Then at the end of the statement, it accuses their opponents of doing the same thing. Very scummy.
- uabstraction 9y agoMeh. This is the same administration which politicized the NFL, and continues to politicize climate science and basic reality itself. Anything you say or do that comes remotely close to holding them accountable will be decried as a political attack. Any evidence of corruption is fake news. I'm not buying it. Pai is as slimy as they come, and everyone knows it. We are going to figure out who was responsible for stuffing the FCC public comment forum with dead people's comments no matter how much Pai screams about it. We are going to find where this blatantly corrupt man's kickbacks are coming from. That isn't politics. That's justice.
- shostack 9y agoLet's say we uncover those things. This administration has proven that if their party controls the government, nothing bad happens regardless of how foul the play. What other options exist to circumvent that issue?
- Fjolsvith 9y agoMethinks the NFL politicized itself, without realizing what potential consequences their actions would bring about.
- h_r 9y agoI'm pretty sure the parent is referring to the POTUS stepping in and demanding certain behavior of both the players and owners. You'd think he had bigger problems to demand his rather limited attention.
- thebiglebrewski 9y agoAjit Pai is a spineless shill for the cable industry. I'm glad he's being investigated. He doesn't care what the public thinks and just pushes the industry agenda over and over again.
- pm90 9y agoYou could pretty much say that about every appointee in this administration.
- thebiglebrewski 9y agoDamn right.
- sctb 9y agoThe guidelines ask us to post civilly and substantively, and comments that are more provocative than informative don't lead us to the kind of thoughtful discussion we're here for. Please try to move things in the informative direction, especially on controversial topics. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- thebiglebrewski 9y agoI mean, I thought this was substantive as it's a pretty well known fact? Or are you on the side of, "fake news"? Not trying to get banned here but isn't it well known in the tech industry that Pai is a shill for big cable who doesn't truly care about the facts? Is calling someone a, "shill" not civil? Sorry I just don't understand what I did wrong here. I did have 17 upvotes on my comment last I checked so I think a good amount of people agree with me right?
- binaryblitz 9y agoI really hope that something comes from this. However, we've been burned SO many times before...
- fosco 9y agoI find it odd the amount of points this has in a few hours but this is not in the front page? If anything happens I hope the result is to encourage more competition in everything under the purview of the FCC.