Ajit Pai can’t catch a break this Monday. Just after John Oliver shaded the FCC commissioner for his lame Big Lebowski tweets and net neutrality stance, the Writers Guild of America has issued a statement slamming Pai, too. Last week, the FCC announced plans to review Colbert’s Late Show monologue joke about President Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the phrase “cock holster.†On Monday morning the WGA came to Colbert’s defense:
“As presidents of the Writers Guilds of America, East and West, we were appalled to read recent remarks by Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai,†WGA East boss Michael Winship and WGA West chief Howard Rodman told Deadline. “He said the FCC would investigate a joke about Donald Trump by Writers Guild member Stephen Colbert, ‘apply the law’ and ‘take appropriate action’ if the joke were found to be ‘obscene.’â€
“Pai’s remarks are just the latest in a series of statements by the current administration indicating a willful disregard of the First Amendment. Colbert was poking fun at authority, a time-honored American tradition and an essential principle of democracy.â€
Colbert already addressed the controversy surrounding his monologue and the subsequent #FireColbert backlash online, while the WGA is on a winning streak for avoiding a writers’ strike after lengthy negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers. In short, vote FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai most likely to incur the wrath of a bunch of clever TV writers with Wi-Fi.