FCC Refuses to Release Email Exchanges Behind the Making of Its "Harlem Shake" PSA Video

Sorry, Blu-Ray heads, the production emails that Ajit Pai, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), exchanged with The Daily Caller during the making of their now-infamous “Harlem Shake” PSA video won’t be included on the special features.

Everyone likes to joke about how 2017 was the worst year ever, but considering it's the year we all got acquainted with Ajit Pai, can you blame them? Pai, the careerist bureaucrat with that quirky Reese’s mug, was the glib smile behind the battle for net neutrality. Well, in December, towards the end of the slow-motion train wreck that culminated with the repeal of Title II regulations, Pai and his buddies at The Daily Caller, a conservative news site that has been criticized for employing a Pizzagate conspiracy theorist, threw together the Internet's cringiest “Harlem Shake” video. You probably remember the memes of Pai eating popcorn, as if to say, I, too, am a human who enjoys the consumption of air popped corn kernels for sustenance.

Well, as part of his ongoing campaign to make the FCC a more “transparent” organization, the FCC has blocked a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the emails related to the creation of the video. Supposedly, this means we won’t ever get to know who’s ungodly idea it was to make this stupid video in the first place. It’s almost as if Pai doesn’t want people knowing how much more awful he is in private conversation than in public--because, wow, he really does not come off well on television.

According to NBC News, the request for the emails were placed by Muckrock, a nonprofit organization that helps to request and analyze public documents. But, unfortunately, the FCC wanted to keep the behind-the-scenes intrigue of the video under wraps. Perhaps, they don’t want us to know about late-in-the-game rewrite from a time-traveler from 2006 that requested the “Harlem Shake”’s inclusion.

“The very basic fact that they’re unwilling to even disclose whether anybody had objections to this internally, or if they were all aboard, is the larger problem,” said J. Pat Brown, the executive editor of Muckrock. “You are entitled answers out of your government.”

This isn’t the first time that the FCC has denied FOIA requests. Back in February, the FCC refused to release information about a satirical video sketch Ajit Pai performed in at an annual dinner hosted by the Federal Communications Bar Association in December 2017. Set in 2003, the skit features Ajit Pai and Verizon senior vice president Kathy Grillo devising a plan to undermine the FCC by installing a “Verizon puppet.” Funny. The FCC claimed that more information about the sketch would "harm" the agency.

Maybe one of these days, Pai will make good on his promise to make the FCC more transparent by showing off his scripts for sketches about how little he cares for the office he holds, the people he supposedly serves and the time-honored art of comedy. But he’s probably backed up by all the lawsuits hitting the FCC since the Net Neutrality repeal.