On Thursday, the FCC headed by telecom stooge Ajit Pai voted along party lines to begin undoing net neutrality rules put in place under Tom Wheeler. Pai held a press conference to bullshit about going back to 1996 internet laws—you remember, when you could only have an email address if you were in a well-endowed university. After the press conference, veteran reporter John M. Donnelly was attempting to talk with one of the Republican commissioners.
John M. Donnelly, a senior writer at CQ Roll Call, said he was trying to talk with FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly one-on-one after a news conference when two plainclothes guards pinned him against a wall with the backs of their bodies.
The Washington Post points out that asking questions of public officials is standard practice, like the way they do in a Democracy with a free press. Donnelly’s “violation” was trying to ask the FCC members questions once they left the press conference podium. Just. Wow.
O’Rielly, not unlike the rest of his Republican goons, took the revisionist narrative that everything going on is normal.
Less we forget, it was only a week ago that another veteran reporter was not only manhandled by the state’s security apparatus, but actually arrested when trying to ask Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price some questions. You can read the National Press Club’s statement on the matter below the fold.