NPR — the only radio worth listening to — reported yesterday on House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler’s launch of a comprehensive investigation of anything Trump (https://www.npr.org/2019/03/04/699976689/house-judiciary-launches-probe-of-allegations-of-obstruction-by-president-trump?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20190304&utm_campaign=news&utm_term=nprnews#list).
In 2011, then Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recommended to President Obama that Ajit Pai be nominated for a Republican seat on the all-important Federal Communications Commission for a five-year term. Donald Trump designated him as Chairman of the FCC in January 2017. The appointment was controversial, as Pai is a leading propponent of repealing internet neutrality — and he accomplished that in 2017, even though over twenty million comments to the FCC opposed the repeal.
Pai’s parents immigrated from the Kolkani region of western India, and they speak the Kolkani language.
So we sent intrepid associate solitary reporter Susanna Sherman to interview Pai, after Trump called Pai demanding that he revoke NPR’s license.
“Susanna,” Pai began, “you and I both know that Mr. Trump favors anything that will screw the little guy, even though millions of Trump voters still adore him.”
“You and I also know that Mr. Trump doesn’t understand that regulatory agencies like the FCC are supposed to be independent regulatory agencies.”
“I take my marching orders from Mitch McConnell and Mr. Trump. Case closed.”
Before leaving Pai’s office, Sherman asked Pai to say something in Kolkani, saying “Sir, I know from your first name that you are an Ajitator, and an agitator for free enterprise, but the Kolkani people — are they as contentious and contumacious as you are?"
When Sherman told Jarl Mohn, the CEO of NPR, about Pai’s plans to revoke its license, he told her, “No worries, Susanna. We’ll just go underground. We’ll broadcast from all over the world. We’ll rename ourselves World Public Radio."