FCC Chairman Pai Serves Up Zingers at DC Dinner

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai took aim at Sinclair and Verizon, but mostly at himself, at the Federal Communications Bar Association Dinner in Washington, an annual self-roast of sorts in front of a crowd of lawyers, lobbyists and journalists at the Hilton Hotel. Chairman Pai, who already injects more humor into monthly meetings than any chairman in the last three decades at least, was in his element cracking wise about the big issues of the day, though the speech was relatively light on the cultural or song references. He opened with a phrase in Russian on the order of "this is going to be a big night." He segued into net neutrality, joking that there were only seven more days to use the Internet.  "You think I'm joking," he added. "It's true…. I read it on the Internet." Chairman Pai said that in deference to the dinner's main sponsor, Sinclair, there was some must-run content: He then played clips from a couple of Behind the Headlines op ed segments by Mark Hyman, the "Listen Up Snowflake" and "Cultural Appropriation" segments, mocking them as the audience laughed along. Pai said he had decided to seek input on his jokes and had received 22 million responses. He said edge provider-backed New America had submitted jokes, but they had to be approved by Google. He said that Twitter had been a great source of suggestions about "what I could do with myself."