FCC Under Fire After Agency Guards 'Manhandle' Reporter The National Press Club is complaining that long-time defense reporter John Donnelly was "manhandled" during yesterday's FCC meeting simply for trying to ask a question. Donnelly said he was shoved up against a wall by plainclothes security personnel at the FCC when he tried to question commissioners when they were not in front of the podium at a scheduled press conference. The meeting drew more attention than normal thanks to the current FCC's decision to vote to begin rolling back popular consumer net neutrality protections.

"Throughout the FCC meeting, the security guards had shadowed Donnelly as if he were a security threat, he said, even though he continuously displayed his congressional press pass and held a tape recorder and notepad," the National Press Club said in its statement. "They even waited for him outside the men’s room at one point." The odd part is that Donnelly isn't even really a confrontational reporter (not that this would justify the FCC's behavior), having dutifully covered the defense sector for years. "When Donnelly strolled in an unthreatening way toward FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly to pose a question, two guards pinned Donnelly against the wall with the backs of their bodies until O’Rielly had passed," they added. "O’Rielly witnessed this and continued walking." Commissioner O'Rielly apologized on Twitter, but claims to not have seen the confrontation, and pointed out he was hungry at the time. The agency was understandably on edge given the extreme unpopularity of their ongoing attempt to remove accountability and oversight over some of the least competitive companies in American industry. FCC Commissioners didn't much want to talk about the bot stuffing the FCC comment system with bogus support for their proposal, their false claims that a spike in comments caused by John Oliver was a "DDoS attack", the fake protestors real protestors say showed up solely to make supporters look bad, or the fact O'Rielly and Pai are ignoring the overwhelming support for keeping the net neutrality rules in place. »twitter.com/johnmdonnell ··· 57560065









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Most recommended from 35 comments

Ostracus

join:2011-09-05

Henderson, KY 19 recommendations Ostracus Member Fifth-estate under fire. Wow! A whole bunch of posts just disappeared. Make of that what one wills. Anyway the problem is deeper than that. Just look at how the current administration has been treating the fifth-estate. It's almost like our "public" officials don't want to be scrutinized. miser

join:2004-01-16

Sandusky, OH 18 recommendations miser Member I don't condone the death threats .... However, if folks are going to that extreme, it probably means the public, who the FCC should be at the behest of, doesn't want net neutrality revoked? JMJimmy

join:2008-07-23 10 recommendations JMJimmy Member Ummm... If he didn't notice... how does he know he was hungry at the time? CyberGuy

join:2006-08-21

Colbert, WA 8 recommendations CyberGuy Member The VA hospital in Spokane did the same thing I have a friend who's a Vietnam vet and has a little dog as an official service animal. He was roughed up by guards during a visit to the VA last year because he had the pet with him and required additional medical attention due to the encounter. We need some accountability from those who consider themselves "in charge" of this country. wiggum

join:2003-05-05

Seattle, WA 3 recommendations wiggum Member The commisioners are political appointees I'll just point out that the commissioners are political appointees. They took the gig not because they were forced to, but because they accepted the position. This gig comes with being accountable to the public. I have no idea what the security situation is, and I don't really care. If a person got pinned because he was simply shouting questions, then that is unacceptable.