The Deep Dish on the FCC's Secret Pizza Party with Reporters

On Sept 14, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and key aides -- Chief of Staff Eddie Lazarus, Senior Counselor Josh Gottheimer, Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor Rick Kaplan and agency spokeswoman Jen Howard -- had a pizza dinner with a select group of journalists.

Howard said the event was "the first in a series of informal chats with those who are on the FCC reporting beat." Officials declined to answer other questions about the event. A few journalists who attended said they didn't find the gathering particularly useful and that in typical form, the notoriously scripted Genachowski did not reveal anything substantive. While there were attempts to pepper the regulators with questions, one source panned the dinner as more akin to a "schmooze" than a news briefing.