O'Reilly Producer Stalks Amanda Terkel: THE VIDEO

So, over the weekend, Fox News sent their employees to stalk Amanda Terkel, a blogger for Think Progress.

They followed away from DC, into Virginia, across that state, and finally ambushed her on her vacation, in order to ask a bunch of frenzied, crackpotty question in an attempt to make her look fearful, agitated and incoherent on national teevee. They did this on behalf of another person in their employ, the thin-skinned shouty moron Bill O'Reilly.

[WATCH.]

Why did this happen? Well, Terkel was one of many people who pointed out the super-duper hypocrisy of O'Reilly appearing as a speaker before the It Happened To Alexa Foundation, which is dedicated to assisting victims of rape. This was absurd, because O'Reilly doesn't particularly seem to care for rape victims. Of one, O'Reilly famously said:

"Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She's walking by herself on the West Side Highway, and she gets picked up by a thug. All right. Now she's out of her mind, drunk."

Such sensitivity, I know. But then what do you expect from a loofah wielding sex creep? By the way, if you want to ensure your O'Reilly ambush footage never makes it to air, simply repeat the phrase "loofah wielding sex creep" over and over again.

Interestingly, the complaints about O'Reilly did not begin, or end, with Terkel. As near as I can tell, O'Reilly's hypocrisy on rape victims was first noted by the Fox News watchdog site NewsHounds. Neither was Terkel the highest profile critic of O'Reilly on this regard. That honor would likely fall to Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, who hammered O'Reilly for days on the air. Somewhere between NewsHounds delivering the story and Olbermann repeatedly banging the outrage home, Terkel posted a brief item describing the matter on ThinkProgress. So, why was it Terkel that was singled out for stalking by the O'Reilly Factor? That's easy! Of all the people they could have possibly intimidated, Terkel was the smallest in stature and the most female. See, all of this is connected, back to the part where O'Reilly is a cowardly sex creep.

It's also connected to O'Reilly's extreme paranoia, which borders on camp. In this case, O'Reilly believes that Terkel is a part of a broad conspiracy, led by NBC News, to make him look foolish. After his broadcast of this addled ambush footage, O'Reilly intoned: "Well, Ms. Terkel is certainly a villain. She was obviously used by NBC News." Occam's Razor holds that what O'Reilly actually faces is not a conspiracy controlled by shadowy figures at NBC, but rather, the widespread belief that he is an uninformed, creepy, loudmouth - a belief that's taken root in the mainstream owing to such "O'Reilly factors" such as "the things O'Reilly does" and "the words that come out of O'Reilly's mouth" and "the creepy sex-loofah stuff, which skeeves people, massively."

If this ever happens to you, it's important to keep a few things in perspective. Last weekend, Terkel was enjoying a vacation, while O'Reilly's factotum, Jesse Watters, was crouched in a van with a cameraperson, stuck following a happier and more well-adjusted member of society across the state of Virginia. So, remember, when Jesse Watters runs up on you, you are about to be confronted by a loser. And if it turns out that you just don't have the time or inclination to speak to the Factor, just tell them that you are a homeless veteran. As it turns out, O'Reilly and all of his employees are terrified that they might one day come face to face with a homeless veteran.

MORE:
I Was Followed, Harassed, And Ambushed By Bill O'Reilly's Producer [ThinkProgress]
Bill O'Reilly Knows What To Do To Uppity Women That Won't Shut Up [Jezebel]
A Lot Of Parents Like To Say I'm A Villain [Attackerman]

PREVIOUSLY, on the HUFFINGTON POST:
Paul Rieckhoff: O'Reilly Downplays Number of Homeless Veterans
Fox News, O'Reilly Offer Chilly Reception To Homeless Vets

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Comments

[ibwilliamsi]

11:22 PM on 04/06/2009

"In this case, O'Reilly believes that Terkel is a part of a broad conspiracy­, led by NBC News, to make him look foolish. "

I was under the impression that O'Reilly was already making himself look foolish without any help...

[BPCentrisAmerican]

01:12 PM on 03/25/2009

I have one a question for Bill'O's creepy stalker. How much did Fox pay Andrea Mackris?

[billbb]

11:43 PM on 03/26/2009

Reports vary... Somewhere between $4 and $60 million.

By the way, Think Progress is sponsoring an O'Reilly sponsor boycott - not a bad idea!

[Virgil Kane]

12:30 PM on 03/25/2009

So was she invited on the Factor to debate O'Reilly? I thought he invited all the people he ambushes before he sends Waters or Porter Berry....

[steamboat]

01:53 PM on 03/25/2009

Let me know if Olbermann EVER has a discussion with a person with an opposite view?

[BPCentrisAmerican]

02:31 PM on 03/25/2009

Bill'O dosen't. One more question, when was Dennis Miller funny, I must of missed it.

[Virgil Kane]

04:47 PM on 03/25/2009

He never has, doesn't look like he ever will.

[fredisfred]

10:44 AM on 03/25/2009

O'Reilly's show was more than a little disturbing last night. For starters, he did a segment about a sexual predator who was released and lived not too far from his victim. Uh, sexual predator? O'Reilly? You do realize you're one of them, right? Settling out of court does not = innocent.

And then he had his weasel boy Jesse Watters on, and the two bragged about what a great job they did stalking Terkel.

Next, O'Reilly had two pretty blonde women on his show talking about a movie about Hilary Clinton that had problems being distribute­d around election time because a judge ruled it was a really a campaign ad. And the two women start disagreein­g and are really getting into it. and O'Reilly says words to the effect of he doesn't want them wrestling in jello. Yeah, it was just a joke, but coming from O'Reilly? Creepy.

[pghperson]

01:20 AM on 03/25/2009

Amanda didn't cause the rape victim or her family any harm. She caused BillO some potential harm by shining a light on what he said previously­. And that's why he put forth this piece on Amanda. On BillO's part - it's dishonest and slanted journalism­. Maybe this sort of journalist­ic practice goes on in all quarters - but in the case of a rape victim - I don't know how else to say it except this young lady is possibly being used against her will again.

[gaja]

01:02 AM on 03/25/2009

I hope Terkel gets a restrainin­g order and gives O'Reilly and his producers a taste of their own medicine. Nothing more heinous than making excuses for rapists --

[BPCentrisAmerican]

02:32 PM on 03/25/2009

She is already going after Bill'O on her blog, go get him and that creep stalker of his.

[howcome]

11:30 PM on 03/24/2009

She was ridiculous on Olbermann ....Oreill­y smoked her .

[joebloe]

02:20 AM on 03/25/2009

Anyone with a modicum of skill can edit an interview to fundamenta­lly change what a person is really saying.

So tell me again HOW Billo smoked her!

[Darthwave]

02:40 PM on 03/25/2009

Troll Alert... you are better off ignoring him. Having a another man stalk a young women while on vacation to conduct a bullbait interview. A tactic taken right out of the nuts from Scientolog­y's fair game playbook. O'Reilly you are real class act.

[InternationalObserver]

07:56 PM on 03/26/2009

Note also that the 'interview­' *finished* with Watters asking a loaded question of Terkel (more of a statement really) but not allowing her to answer. Maybe she answered it but they didn't like her answer. Either way they just cut back to BillO

[bigbluenat4]

03:09 AM on 03/25/2009

Billo smoked her? I really hope you are joking? How about you tell someone who you are, then when you are on vacation they will come with a video camera and ask you a bunch of stupid inane questions and then play them on TV while ridiculing you...Oh wait, that happens to you all the time. Right rush?

[HillaryGoAway]

10:23 PM on 03/24/2009

Amanda Terkel is a wonderful and impressive woman for many reasons. I can't imagine being ambushed on vacation and keeping my composure the way that she did. I would have been in fiipflops, hair a mess and holding a beer going huh, wha????

[Lunchbreak]

10:15 PM on 03/24/2009

Can we get a picture, bio and references on this "Jesse Waters" character? I want to see what kind of man hunts down a tiny girl and corners her for an "interview­".

[doug108]

09:24 PM on 03/24/2009

Sucker punching people is what cowards do. Also, blind siding people almost never produces truth. It's unfair. You can't expect someone to mount a good defense, if they don't know what they're accused of ahead of time. That's why our legal system provides for discovery. Of course, Bill O'Reilly has never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

I thought she handled herself very well, though.

[dphilip]

10:25 PM on 03/24/2009

Hmmm? Would you portray what the bus loads of Acorn activist is doing to the executives and families of AIG as stalking??­?......... No, that's "justice" right?
This is why your side has no credibilit­y.

[LibKitty]

11:48 PM on 03/24/2009

Delusional­???

[jungfreud]

11:49 PM on 03/24/2009

Those executives are liberals. What now?

[smiz]

09:17 PM on 03/24/2009

The poor libs are wild,
so sorry that they are the less intelligen­t of our USA.

[joebloe]

02:24 AM on 03/25/2009

Can you please make an argument longer than a bumper sticker?

How are we wild?
In what ways are we "less intelligen­t"?

Oh, and you might want to fix up your sentence structure.
(my high school english teacher would have flipped out)

[bigbluenat4]

03:14 AM on 03/25/2009

Less intelligen­t? I thought the whole Lib hating thing was that we were College people who thought we were better then the non-colleg­e crowd? Are we Elitist or are we stupid rednecks? which is it?

[Baggaratz]

08:55 PM on 03/24/2009

What the heck was the Mel Gibson component?

[HappyMarsden]

08:43 PM on 03/24/2009

Bill O' Krap says "In white collar circles, it doesn't get much more evil than a blogger repeating that I had said a woman who is too attractive to men deserves to get raped" on my radio show.

Yup. That's Bill O'Reilly folks. It doesn't get much more evil than Bill O'.

[AustinCynic]

08:27 PM on 03/24/2009

The main difference is that Tesh had a modicum of talent, at least where music was concerned.

[timinhi]

09:29 PM on 03/24/2009

And, even if one might think Tesh is kind of "dorky," I think most would agree that he at least seems like a genuinely nice guy, something that is of great ongoing dispute concerning Bill-o.

[doug108]

09:34 PM on 03/24/2009

Debatable.

[BoSoxFanNC]

07:20 PM on 03/24/2009

Hey lefties...­.O'Reily never said that she deserved to be raped and murdered. He said it may not be a good idea to wear a mini skirt and halter top walking down the street while drunk. This is FACT.

[rfshunt]

01:04 AM on 03/25/2009

Well, you've got me curious, BoSox.

Just how short must a mini skirt be to make a rape acceptable­. 8 inches above the knee? 10? And does it go straight from no rape to rape O.K. at that place. Or is there a transition zone, where it's O.K. just to grope?

And what is the blood alcohol level where rape is justified? Is it 1.0? 1.25? There's got be a line. Or are you saying that just one drink or two on the part of the woman and the rape is then fine in your book.

[MGNJ]

01:36 AM on 03/25/2009

“I think it’s safe to say that if Mel Gibson didn’t get drunk, he wouldn’t be in this terrible situation he finds himself in,” said O’Reilly. “And if a young woman, 18-year-ol­d Jennifer Moore of Harrington Park, NJ, didn’t get drunk, she’d be alive today.”

He didn't say deserved, but he also did not simply say "it may not be a good idea." Again, the implicatio­n is that she was RESPONSIBL­E for her rape and murder. That is inexcusabl­e.