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

[maitepfan]

From where I sit the fox guy had a lot of class compared to the open left guy. If this is your attempt to embarrass fox all you did was embarrass your self. at least the professional reporter responded with no comment, still I wonder why he was let into the conference but not the fox guy seems that maybe acorn doesn't really believe in equal access. Sounds a lot like trying to control the media.

[infodoc1]

I wouldn't let him in with that ridiculous tuxedo and portable red carpet either. He looks like a psychopath.

[unbiased observer]

I would have to agree. That Open Left guy was annoying, and completely embarrassed himself. His repeating of 'opinion media' and talking over the fox guy showed why the right can't understand why people on the left associate with people like that. He makes up a term called 'opinion media' and thinks that gives him a license to get into the ACORN meeting when 'regular media' shouldn't. The fact is that has a recorder, a camera, and a Web site where he can post information: that's called media. He's obviously got an inferiority complex that he's not working for a major network, so he's trying to make a name for himself.

About his issue of what the Fox president wrote: the Fox reporter was right by saying that was the executive's 1st amendment right. And obviously the Open Left guy hasn't watched much of Fox because they are recognizing the mortal sacrifices of our troops more than any other network (Oliver North's War Stories, the Gary Sinise special, lots of reports from anchors, Hannity, O'Reilly, Greta -- they all talk about our troops' sacrifices, including mortal ones).

[trish74]

They do talk alright. You're absolutely right about that. If they did their due diligence and questioned Bush's reasoning for this unnecessary war those very troops would be alive.

[azureblue]

All the lefty did was to throw Fox's ambush tactics (and Biil O's modus operandi) right back in their faces. Hey Fox- if you can't take it, don't dish it out.

[ihavenobias]

Except that they ARE opinion media. It's one thing for O'Reilly and Hannity to do it, and quite another to have EVERY single person who works for them (outside of say Shep Smith) push right wing talking points day after day while claiming to be "news".

At least MSNBC has 3 hours of Scarborough on every morning, name a single liberal that hosts a show on Fox, much less a 3 hour show during the week.

[o4tuna]

Dressed up like a million-dollar trooper
Tryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come let's mix where Rockefellers
walk with sticks or um-ber-ellas
in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

[RButler]

Doesn't the guy from Fox look like a ventriloquist's dummy? But, then again, that would be appropriate for what he's doing.

The other day, Chris Matthews commenting on Bush's recent speech in Erie, Pa wondered if he was 'lip-synching' Dick Cheney. Sometimes, Matthews is really funny.

[JMKWritesWell]

Let me tell you a little something about Fox News. I used to work at the Navy's Joint Intelligence Center Pacific, or JICPAC (now called JIOC for Joint Intelligence Operations Center). This was during GWB's administration. We had a building-wide regulation that required EVERY television in the building located in "public spaces" (more than one person could see it at a time) to be tuned to FOX. If one of those "public" (Ha! You have to have a Top Secret/SCI clearance just to access the building) was found on ANY other channel, punishment in the form of verbal reprimand would be issued. Pushing the issue was tantamount to disobeying a direct order, so we just went along.

This is why I say in my book that Fox News under GWB was LITERALLY Government Issue News. What purpose could such a regulation even serve? PROPAGANDA...pure and simple. We should simply refer to FOX as the GIN channel. Why? Because you'd have to drink an entire bottle of gin to believe a single word that issues forth from that septic, COMPLETELY unfair and off-balance, "news" agency.

IS2(SW) Justin M. Kolenc
Veteran, USN '98-'03

[derwood802]

What is it with the right and this stranglehold on what other people should be allowed to see? A local diner recently installed a big screen TV that shows - you guessed it - FOX all day. A friend of mine requested that they turn the channel and the owner refused - even though my friend was the ONLY PERSON in the diner at the time! Propaganda is right, and right down to the 'street level' righty.

[urweatherman]

JMK....I am a 20 plus year veteran, been there (where you have), done that longer, and you are totally false and misleading! MSM is truly the GIN of today! Get ur facts straight!

[o4tuna]

I'm guessing you weren't in intelligence.

[Thucydides Jr.]

I think folks actually in military intelligence can spell "your".

[golferman]

Well I am a veteran too and he is totally true probably. I just love the people that think that they are the only one who has served their country and their for they are right. Keep watching fox, it's good comedy.

[JMKWritesWell]

urweatherman: Thank you for your service. Care to share dates and commands for verification? I go by my full name and former title, whereas you use an alias.

About me:

ENLISTED: 06 Oct 1998. GRADUATED BOOT CAMP: 11 Dec 1998, Division 012, under BMC(SW) Plyler. TRAINING SCHOOL: Apprenticeship Training Detachment (Great Lakes). Graduated #1 in class, promoted to E-2. 1ST COMMAND: USS Reuben James (FFG-57). Jan 1999 - Oct 2000. Earned ESWS; selected for IS3. 2ND COMMAND: JICPAC. Oct 2000 - Aug 2003. COLLATERAL DUTY: ASF, 5 months on gates of Pearl Harbor searching for IEDs following 911. Returned to JICPAC as North Korea Tactical Analyst, promoted toto IS2(SW) earned JSAM for involvement with M/V So San. DISCHARGED: 07 Sept 2003.

With that said, I am not [making] false [statements/accusations] nor am I [being] misleading. Were you at JICPAC concurrently with me? If not, you're not exactly qualified to comment on command policy. What is your name? Did I know you there?

At present, you may have a BETTER case for your MS[N] claim, being that we have a liberal President and they are a liberal network. But that's where the buck stops. Notice that I said this was during GWB's administration?

In closing, you really ought to consider being more diplomatic. You've accused me of being an outright liar, and that I most certainly am not. Anyone here can verify my name and service, and I hope that they do. Can you offer us the same?

JMK

[Fred54]

Gives too much credit to faux. It certainly wasn't good journalism.
zzzz

[Cathleen Shaffer]

I would love to see a whole week of boycott FOX. Not by viewers but by anyone of any consequence actually going on the air as a guest. That includes their "experts", the people they find from under rocks that supposedly are in the know. These goofballs that Greta comes up with etc. , and anyone even remotely tied to any of their formats. I would actually watch it, just to see if these "journalists" could actually rise to the task of not counting on their standard flunkies.

[urweatherman]

This country is already under educated.....we don't need to get any stupider (LOL) because of your suggestion! Wise up!

[o4tuna]

Yes, many of your replies make the case you just stated.

[slurrrrpee]

Not impressed.

[Marcus Rein]

nobody wins with this ugly journalism... if the complaint is about ambush journalism and how bad it is, dont copy it and throw it back in fox's faces to prove a point. all you prove is it's a bad way to report bc the information is secondary to the surprise attack/awkwardness of the forced interview

[libraryrat]

clearly should not be sending a woman to do a man's job!

[batterycharged]

LAME. What was the point? Yeah Fox stinks, this was worthless. Just saying.

[delvis]

i wish all reporters would dress so well. and what a lovely carpet

[rini]

Please be a snark

[olmossy]

well Fox never has anything to say. And this time they Really had nothing to say.

[JerryLevy]

An Acorn insider is hitting up this reporter on something that he believed was done at FOX five years ago. Not exactly relevant but he has that right. What is really interesting is that Acorn closed their gather only to Fox and not the far left media. No surprise here

[olmossy]

Well since none of the questions about how this country was lied and misled into an unjustified War,backed up by the mainstream press have never been answered, The questions are still relevant.

[I once had a Crysknife]

Why is Obama still waging it them?

[julia23]

It wasn't an acorn person. It was an independent blogger. And are you really comparing an opinion blogger with a reporter from FOX? Are you agreeing that they both contain the same amount of news and have the same reporting standards?

[garystartswithg]

acorn opened their meeting to media. you missed the point. fox is opinion media with a big budget -- that doesn't make them news media. thanks for trying though. by the way -- isn't a red doormat elitist and something only the far left would own?

[jaggededge]

weak

[GordonA]

Yeah, but let's not forget that when Michael Moore engages in such ambush tactics it is excellent and noble, and should not to be criticized.

[protagonia]

Moore goes after Captains of industry, fox goes after individual people going to their cars.

An adult can tell the difference, can you?

[cheeky2]

Michael Moore has gone to visit officials and offices with the top authority to address the subject he's chronicling, and he has pursued that access to ask the questions any of us should be able to ask respectfully, as far as I've seen of his work.

O'Reilly and his merry band of menaces, on the other hand, cross the line of harassment by attacking people who, even if public figures of some sort, aren't in positions of top authority to speak for anyone except themselves. The approach clearly is used for no reason except to humiliate an individual at a personal level.

I ambushed the Fox ambushers solely on my own just before they ambushed Bill Moyers at the last Media Reform conference in Minneapolis. To me, they were belligerent, disingenuous and aggressive in answer to my reasonable question: "Why are you filming these events here this weekend." I got several F bombs in reply from them. I doubt Michael Moore would conduct himself that way if a journalist asked, simply, why he was covering an event. And I doubt he would lie about it, as the Fox crew did to me.

[Sneakerface]

Michael Moore is a great filmmaker, and an asset to democracy. But he has practicied the 'ambush' reporting style, which I don't like.

[cheeky2]

BTW, here is a link to that Moyers ambush. See a real journalist vs. an entertainment lackey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_2IZT4VgDY&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epbs%2Eorg%2Fengage%2Fblog%2Fbill%2Dmoyers%2Dquoto039reilly%2Dfactorquot%2Dproducer%2Dgo%2Dit&feature=player_embedded

[BOin08]

Agree. No gotcha here and worse-boring. Choke yourself.

[WritusMaximus]

Fox did deserve the treatment but Oops! The dude that was an insider! Lost some credibility.