After Free Press's Lauren Wilson suggests in Tweet that FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai's concern for people of color is insincere, Pai Tweets back that he is proud of his "Indian heritage and I am never going to apologize for standing for what I believe is right.” Wilson then Tweeted an apology. The exchange came in the context of the controversy surrounding FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's plan to ban joint sales agreements, which Free Press supports and Pai opposes.
Fress Press Staffer, Pai Get Into Tweet Tiff
A Tweet today by Free Press staffer Lauren Wilson that said that GOP FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai couldn’t “sit with us” and suggested that his concern for “POC” [people of color] wasn’t sincere, blew up in the Twitter-verse briefly Thursday afternoon, resulting in Wilson Tweeting an apology.
“I should have chosen them [my words] more carefully,” she Tweeted.
What set off the flap was Wilson’s contention in a previous Tweet that a recommendation by Pai that the FCC hold off on a vote to crack down on joint sales agreements—pending an agency study of the impact that JSAs had on diversity–evidenced a “newfound concern for POC.”
Tweeting in response, Pai said: “I am proud of my Indian heritage and I am never going to apologize for standing for what I believe is right.”
Said Matthew Berry, a Pai staffer, in a subsequent statement to reporters: “Our office is disappointed that someone at Free Press has chosen to launch a racist attack against Commissioner Pai.
“It is offensive to suggest that he — the first Indian-American to serve in this position, and whose parents came to the United States with little other than their names — does not care about people of color or any group of Americans.
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“It is also offensive to suggest that he should not be allowed to ‘sit with’ other people of color because of his views on media regulation.”
Free Press is one of the advocacy groups that has been pushing for a ban of JSAs.
Comments (3)
Ellen Samrock says:
March 20, 2014 at 6:01 pm
This isn’t the first liberal lefty who has put her foot in her mouth. And it won’t be the last.
Gene Johnson says:
March 21, 2014 at 10:46 am
“Foot in mouth” disease is a non-partisan affliction. To think that only “liberal lefties” do it, and that “conservative righties” don’t do it at least as much is naive, to say the least.
Ellen Samrock says:
March 21, 2014 at 1:11 pm
Perhaps. But, instead of reasoned debate, the left has been known for using fake moral imperatives and trumped-up shame as a tactic to try to shut up those they disagree with. Commissioner Pai’s office simply called Ms. Wilson out on it and she got caught. After all, it’s the left who have been the primary movers and shakers behind hamstringing the broadcast industry, if not doing away with it altogether.