Bill O'Reilly's 'Ambush Journalism' in 87 Seconds

Bill O'Reilly's ambush tactics reached new lows when Jesse Watters, King of the Ambushing Producers, chased down blogger Amanda Terkel at Think Progress while she was on vacation. What makes these tactics even more despicable is the fact that Bill O'Reilly is sending his minions to his victims' homes, vacation spots, parking lots -- you name it -- just to fulfill the odious mission of being smear mercenaries.

And his motives are all too clear: revenge. He even violates his own 'ambush policy' regarding these intimidation practices.

According to the O'Reilly Factor website, Bill O'Reilly will address "why ... the far left, in cahoots with NBC News, hurt a rape victim and her family." The post appears to be a reference to an "ambush" interview of the Center for American Progress' Amanda Terkel reportedly conducted by Factor producer Jesse Watters. But O'Reilly has previously suggested that the "ambush journalism" conducted by his producers is limited to targeting "public servants" and stated that prior to those "ambush" interviews, subjects would either be asked on the program or asked "to issue a clear statement explaining their actions."

In this 87-second clip, we've highlighted many instances where Bill O'Reilly's producers harass and attack journalists, whistleblowers, judges, politicians, and bloggers who do not share Bill O'Reilly's political views or just openly criticize him. It's all about intimidation, plain and simple, and the falafel is now out of the bag. David Neiwert calls it "Gobsmacking," but whatever phrase you want to use, it's very ugly and it is a flagrant abuse of media power.

Just in case you happen to come in contact with O'Reilly's ambush producers, here's the Complete Guide on How to Deal with Bill O'Reilly's ambush producers.

Jesse Watters is so proud of his actions that he's compiled a list of some of the people he has ambushed online, called:

Producer's Notebook: Ambushed

Take a quick look at his handiwork, but he does leave out a few more notable ones:

Anti-war activist and amateur t-shirt salesman Dan Frazier. THE CRIME: Selling t-shirts with the names of 1,700 who died in the war with the words "Bush lied, they died" on it.

Great Barringon, MA. THE CRIME: Being "environmental alarmists," hating Christmas.

Cynthia Tucker. THE CRIME: She didn't love Sarah Palin.

Scott McClellan. THE CRIME: Accusing President Bush and Vice President Cheney of "lying" about Valerie Plame. The Factor, despite travelling to McClellan's house, was unable to get him on camera.

Arianna Huffington. THE CRIME: Running a "hate website" and being a "far left zealot.

Roger Oglesby, publisher of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. THE CRIME: Refusing to comply with an FBI request for Seattle media to publish pictures of two men who looked "like they could be middle eastern" who had "been seen on several ferries" and appeared "overly interested in the workings an layout. Note: The story turned out to be completely groundless.

Great Barringon, MA. THE CRIME: Being "environmental alarmists," hating Christmas

Jane Fonda, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon. THE CRIME: Attending an anti-war rally. But anything will do because they are actors.

Bill Moyers. THE CRIME: He's Bill Moyers.

And of course, then Sen. Barack Obama.THE CRIME: Not going on The O'Reilly Factor. Bill O'Reilly did this one himself.

More and more people are becoming outraged by this behavior and it's starting to hit Rupert Murdoch's pocketbook. UPS indicated how annoyed they are with The Factor and are dropping their ad dollars from his program.

When Bill O'Reilly sent his ambush mercenaries out and demanded that JetBlue pull their ad revenue from a Netroots Nation event, he was perfectly fine with that, but I guess he's not too happy now.

"Hey Bill, you want to comment on that?"

Ask him why The National Center for Missing Kids canceled his speaking engagement and see if he'll give you a straight answer.

And he doesn't spare his own people from his abuse either. Watch how he berates one of his own FOX News contributors because she dared to dissent from his opinion about Bill Moyers. He starts yelling at Jane Hall in this clip. He has a habit of doing that to her too.

I would go on The Factor and challenge Bill about his behavior, but I doubt he would take me up on it, so we're left to just expose his bad behavior and let you decide. The fair and balanced way. The proof is in the video.

You can join Think Progress' campaign to protest O'Reilly's harassment here.

(cross post: John Amato is the founder of CrooksandLiars.com)

Comments

[Berettasskeeter]

I fail to see how the Factor's tactics are any different from decades of gotcha journalism. Reporters have been shoving cameras and microphones in front of people's faces since cameras were invented. 60 Minutes made its name through the same sort of journalism.
Perhaps its just your hatred of Bill O'Reilly that is the problem?!
Semper fi

[har5125]

60 Minutes confronted individuals at their work, not by going onto their private property or by stalking them across state lines.

[CynAnne]

Signed the petition, John! The video clip highlighted how unprofessional "Lil' Jesse & the Camera-Toters" are, up close and personal. And the best way to deal with O'Really (and his ilk) is exactly what Think Progress is doing - shining the light of truth on their deceptive words and duplicitous dealings, and let the advertisers for these 'programs' know we, the American consumers, will happily take our money somewhere that doesn't sponsor Bill-o's personal stalking squad..! ;) ...

[realpolitic]

In his rules for this sort of ambush journalism, O'Reilly said he only stalks public officials. Even with that simple statement, O'Reilly showed his hypocrisy. He stalks whomever criticizes him or criticizes another far-right icon. Then O'Reilly tries to claim he is not a partisan. O'Reilly could really only survive on a network dedicated to misinformation and one with such low ethical standards as Fox News.

[superfrog]

You should send a link to your post to every company that advertises on the "Bill O Reilly" Show. If they don't care about where they spend thair advertising dollars then why should we spend our money on buying thair products or using thair services.

[StupideAmericans]

Uh, those companies only care about ratings. As long as so many brown shirt wingnuts keep watching Bill O from their trailers like lemmings gleefully dashing for the cliff edge they'll keep advertising.

What, you think these companies care about truthfulness and objectivity? They're corporations. Those notions are all greek to them.