December 14, 2017

The Guy Who Repealed Net Neutrality Caught Dancing in Video with Pizzagate Conspiracy Theorist

FCC Chair Ajit Pai is really something.

FCC chairman Ajit Pai during the net neutrality vote. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officially voted to repeal net neutrality Thursday, handing telecom companies a massive win. The move can largely be credited to FCC chairman Ajit Pai, who was appointed to lead the commission by the Trump administration in January. Pai has made numerous media appearances promoting the repeal ahead of this week’s final vote, including, it turns out, dancing in a video produced by conservative news site Daily Caller with a woman who supported the Pizzagate conspiracy theory during the 2016 election. 

The video’s premise is to show all the things you can still do once net neutrality is repealed. Apparently, one of those things is to “still ruin memes,” a segment during which Pai does the Harlem Shake. One of the women, a Twitter user pointed out on Thursday, is a Daily Caller staffer who had previously supported the conspiracy theory in a video on her YouTube page. The video has since been taken down, according to Gizmodo. 

What’s clear is that Pai doesn’t seem to be taking the repeal too seriously. In addition to the video, after FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn made a passionate case marking her disappointment with the net neutrality repeal on Thursday, Pai mocked her remarks. “Thank you Commissioner Clyburn. I’m going to mark you down as a ‘no’ then?” he said, laughing.

As we’ve previously reported, repealing net neutrality would give internet service providers the ability to control whether some websites have faster or slower internet speeds, including charging consumers and companies more for internet access—a move opposed by the large majority of Americans, including among Republicans. Pai could also be the decisive voice behind a massive media merger with tremendous consequences for local news.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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