Fox Reporter Given A Taste Of Ambush Journalism (VIDEO)

Fox News is well-known for taking the tactic of "ambush journalism" to gratuitous lengths to get footage for air of their pet targets getting freaked out on the streets of this fair nation. For example, you remember that time that NewsHounds reported that Bill O'Reilly was going to be speaking at an event for an organization for rape victims, despite the fact that he'd previously shown contempt for one, and then O'Reilly's nemesis Keith Olbermann talked about it on the air, and they lacked the cojones to ambush either Olbermann or the writers of the blog that put the story out there in the first place, so instead they stalked a ThinkProgress blogger named Amanda Terkel who'd done nothing more than blog about NewsHounds' original post, confronting her on vacation after following her across the state of Virginia from her home? GOOD TIMES.

Adam Green of OpenLeft espied Fox's Griff Jenkins outside a convention for ACORN, a community organizing group who Fox is relentlessly working to depict as a band of Uruk-Hai bent on the destruction of Western civilization. Jenkins was dressed in a tuxedo (he likes to play dress-up!) and standing by a "red carpet" (actually, a sad red doormat), hoping to interview people for something that was sure to be substantive, given the set-up and artifice! So, Green turned the tables on Jenkins, and confronted him about whether Fox reporters are issued memos laden with GOP talking points! It all sort of gets under Jenkins' skin, just a little bit.

Nice tuxedo.

WATCH:

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Comments

[Free2Speak]

My God what is wrong with Fox...they have gone nuts, ,pardon the pun, over ACORN.That Beck guy was foaming at the mouth yesterday opening his show about ACORN.Geez this is incredible......

[rasputin999]

Fox news are like cockroaches, they don't like the spotlight directed at them.

[kdlaiusa]

Ambush journalism is dead!!!

[Nosmanic]

I liked the video doing to same thing to Fox News as they do to everyone else.

[Dustee]

Fox New Loves to vilify anybody especially Daily kos, Acorn, Pelosi etc. To make them the bad guy to keep their puppets hating everybody they hate.

They REALLY hate dkos because dkos spread the word on how Fox won a court battle where they can lie on air about the news, and their puppets believe them.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/30/201231/262

Posted in 2007 but the court date was in 2003.

[iplaw]

I am in shock that someone would not only reference J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional orcs, but a lesser known subset of those orcs. You have really let your inner geek come out. Congratulations.

[PuddyKatz]

I'm working, don't bother me!

[jonjon66]

Fox competition is not MSNBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, NBC its..... Comedy Central.

I see.

[default013]

That's funny - considering the fact that comedy central (stewart and colbert) is the primary news source for a large number of mainstream liberals. Not to mention the fact that fox destroys every channel you mention in the ratings.

[ihavenobias]

That's funny - considering the fact that a survey showed that Comedy Central viewers had a significantly better grasp of basic facts compared to Fox News viewers:

"SURVEY: Daily Show/Colbert Viewers Most Knowledgable, Fox News Viewers Rank Lowest"

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/16/daily-show-fox-knowledge/

[fmz]

wake up ...learn, research and formulate your own opinions, otherwise you are doomed to repeat histroy.

[JMKWritesWell]

Primary news source? Where did you pull that little gem from? Care to provide a link? Does FOX news also destroy Fox? Because that "other network" of theirs is one of the most liberal channels on TV today.

Seems a bit hypocritical to me. Oh wait, that's because they're out to make MONEY, pure and simple. They pander to the libs with "Family Guy" and "The Simpsons" and then they turn around and pander to the Neocons with FOX News. They aren't interested in sharing balanced info, they just want you to help them with their balance SHEET.

JMK

[Sharon Hunt]

because its entertaining. Normal people can't turn away from the lies and can't believe a channel like that exists.

[MSMSucksCom]

A few comments.

What's with ACORN acting like the Brown Shirts.

Isn't that sidewalk public property? So no one can stop anyone else from peaceful assembly.

Jenkins... talk about looking like a cornered feral cat about to be taken to the pound.

Jenkins, I love his glasses. I have something similar, but not as nice has his.

[azureblue]

typical Foxie- lie, attack, ambush, smear, talk over, yell at, then go running for Mommy when somebody throws it back in their faces. Serves them right

[alumtrix]

I'm really not sure that I got anything out of the video itself. I agree, it was nothing more than one "amatuer" blogger/media guy hounding another professional media guy. Kind of fun to see I suppose.
Jason, I like the way you mention that Bill O'Reilly was in contempt for one rape victims organization -no details given as to what he did - but willing to give a speech at anothers'. And then when you bring up ACORN, you fail to mention that for at least the second election in a row, they are being investigated for voter registration fraud.
I find it amusing that ACORN is doing exactly to the gov't what the libs accuse Bush or any repub for that matter of doing. Yes I agree that there is a ton of greed and fraud out there. They are stealing OUR money for their own personal gain. I'm sure they get some qualified people to vote, or at least to register. That doesn't mean they are entitled to drive around in an $80,000 car and live in a 4000 sq ft home at my expense. Now back to your article, you were saying......................................................

[ProgressiveOldMan]

The Government did investigate Voter Registration Fraud and a REPUBLICAN plead GUILTY !!!!

But ACORN has not even been charged.

Did you miss the latest memo from the RNC about not embarassing yourself by bringing up Voter REGISTRATION Fraud?

[urweatherman]

ACORN really needs thorough investigation....Can the NYT take the lead on this one please? Can you serve the public just this once?

[o4tuna]

If Fox is so good, why don't they do it? It's not like the boss can't get someone some press credentials from one of his newspapers.

[Comnsense12]

This is just plain embarrasing for all. So much hate for the other side is going to continue to tear our country apart.

[default013]

I agree. That's why I watch Olbermann. He makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. The right wing should follow this approach and offer an olive branch to begin a rational debate on issues. If only Fox could follow the example of peaceful debate set by olbermann, air america and many of the "post-partisan" posters to this blog - we could have one party rule.

[Pretrib]

FOX is laughing all the way to the bank while all the rest of the liberal media outlets continue to lose viewership and go bankrupt.

[derwood802]

You can only get so much market share by pandering to 20% of the voting public.

[urweatherman]

Just let the profits do the talking and not your wrong assertions! Put up (the facts), or shut up!

[o4tuna]

and they are laughing at you because you buy their crap.

[azureblue]

and the smart people got tired of having somebody tell them what to think, and they go to the net, and get the news firsthand, minus the Fox filter.

Fox News is the National Enquirer- they admit they do not report the truth as news and they admit they are a propaganda outlet for the GOP. . They fawned at Bush's feet for years, and dares anyone to criticize a war president, but, still we are at war, and now Fox is doing everything it can to tear down Obama's cleanup of Bush's mess.

[Waitaminute]

Yes, fox has the rightwinger market cornered. Along with rush and the rest. Different talking heads, same viewers.

[kdlaiusa]

And the GOP will continue to lose elections.

[Lauralics]

I like Griff, saw the confrontation, and Fox was pushed around for simply asking "why"? Jeez, it's not like they were storming the door, this merely confirms that libs hate any other viewpoint but their own. Also, there really wasn't any viewpoint on politics at play here, Griff wanted to know why he couldn't come in when other journalist's were allowed entrance. Is asking this a crime?

[o4tuna]

I find it amazing that what you got out of the video was "Fox was pushed around for simply asking "why"?". But, it really isn't surprising. I would like to point out that standing in the building's lobby or entrance, doesn't mean, that the guy from Open Left had access to the Acorn conference. But, you assume that he did. It basically boils to some kind of strange high school notion that you and your team should win regardless of how well your team plays or how good they are. Being a winner is what matters most. It's like saying that your guy shouldn't get tackled because that keeps him from scoring and you blame the other team for tackling him. While it's all well and good for your team to tackle the other team's players, but not yours. You see, you live by a double standard. You want rules that favor you, and you want another, different set of rules to apply to others. You want to have and be privileged. I don't want you to have any more privilege over me then you already have.

[I once had a Crysknife]

This who thing looked silly and amateur on the part of the far left guy.

[Sepulchre]

You mean the same EXACT thing FOX does constantly?

[I once had a Crysknife]

Well Fox does not ambush reporters, mostly they ambush people who work for tax payer dollars. On most accounts we are talking about judges, Bill Moyers who works at PBS and school officials who do crazy things and then won't answer to the public about it. Personally I think people are smart enough to know that if they refuse to answer for what they have done, that is pretty much an admission of guilt. They funny thing is, no one says anything when the media ambushes and stalks some Hollywood actress, or when Micheal Moore does it to someone who works at Kmart. Reporters have always, always, always ran up in peoples faces and stuck their microphone there.. It's only condemned when they work for Bill O'Reilly.

[derwood802]

Maybe the 'far left' guy just needs more practice being like the 'far right' guys who do this sort of thing on a regular basis.

I do find it odd, however, that the 'far right' guy's boss sent out a memo instucting FOX personalities not to mourn our WAR DEAD.

Makes a reasonable person wonder what kind of ghouls the 'far right' really are...

[urweatherman]

Is that all u got?