This Is How You Ambush Fox Newser Jesse Watters

video

by Steve Krakauer | 7:32 pm, September 20th, 2009

» 9 comments

watters_9-20 At the Values Voters Summit this weekend, Think Progress caught up with infamous Fox News ambusher Jesse Watters for an ambush interview of his own.

And unlike Gawker’s attempt to ambush Watters outside his home in June, this one was fairly successful.

The video is below. Also, Fox Nation published their own video of the ambush which could end up on The O’Reilly Factor Monday, which essentially provides another angle to watch Watters be a cowering hypocrite.

Some background first: In March Watters ambushed Amanda Terkel, an editor at Think Progress. She wrote about the experience, and it started a run on ‘ambush tactics’ stories, including this one from Brian Stelter of the New York Times.

“So you’re trying to ambush the ambusher?” says Watters at the beginning of the video. Then things get a little creepy. “Amanda Terkel? Tell her I said hello,” he says. “Tell Amanda and her boyfriend I say hi. Amanda, how you doing?”

Watters is asked why he wouldn’t be interviewed for the Times story. “I didn’t refuse to comment to the New York Times,” he says, smiling. “Don’t believe everything you read in the New York Times.” Meanwhile, Stelter refuted this on Twitter: “I called Mr. Watters repeatedly at his office #, and he referred my calls to Fox’s PR people. He refused to comment.”

So Watters got a taste of his own medicine – and responded by being evasive, fabricating and generally acting annoyed by the whole process. It sounds a lot like…the people who Watters ambushes.

Even some at The Fox Nation had some harsh words for Watters after seeing the video. Here’s “Bob the Conqueror”: “Jesse Watters, your college called, they want their degree back. It is sitting in your closet next to your dignity.”

Check it out:

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Amanda Terkel, fnc, fox news, Jesse Watters, Think Progress, Values Voters Summit

CaptainAmerica

I love this comment– “even some on Fox Nation”! Oh yes, they make you take a loyalty test before you can post there! ha ha

Also, I love how Steve just takes the NY Times version of things. Oh because the left winger Brian (TVnewser got much better after he left) twitted something, we gotta believe him.

Why don’t you all get back to posting Media Matters version of this??!
m

I really don’t like these type of ambush interviews, regardless who does it. They’re a total disregard of the separation between people’s public and private lives. I don’t think Jesse Watters liked this happen to him and it might’ve given him a glimpse into how it feels to be on the receiving end. Hopefully this is the last one in this stupid feud.
JunkJunk

SteveK is letting his true colors shine through. And those colors are very blue…

Lovely.

;-)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Foster-Kamer/29002703 Foster Kamer

Little late, Steve. We ran this yesterday. That is how you get to a story.
http://mediaite.com Steve Krakauer

Well let’s see:

CaptainAmerica – how did TVNewser get when I left a couple months ago after I worked there for a year and a half? Do you really think Watters was ready to comment to the Times and they didn’t ask him?

JunkJunk – Do these let my true colors shine too?
http://www.mediaite.com/online/bill-oreilly-attacks-g-e-on-day-3-of-truce-gate-wins-for-good/
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-claims-journalistic-quality-turns-to-stand-up-comedy/
This isn’t about politics at all – it’s about a style of reporting.

And Foster – Hey, thanks for checking in. Not sure what point you’re making though. Sigh.
ChuckfromTacoma

I thought that this was a rather boorish and amateurish attempt at an ambush.
If I were Watters, I probably would have asked him (the Gawker guy) if he had any intelligent questions or if they were all going to be similar to the fluff that he had just spewed.
Why is The Gawker so hung up on Watters anyway? He is just a reporter (kinda-sorta) and really should not be the story. Aren’T the folks at Gawker concerned about the ACORN corruption, the Obama health care debacle or any number of important problems facing us?
This really is a kind of lame and childish way to do business.
http://mediaite.com Steve Krakauer

The Fox News ambushers AND Gawker can learn from James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles. Their “ambush interviews” got serious change/response.
http://www.abramsresearch.com/ Dan Abrams

This just shows that Watters is a much more effective ambusher than the Think Progress folks. TP focused on this minutiae of whether someone was called before Watters ambushed her? Who cares? Sure it might demonstrate some intellectual dishonesty but come on, there are so many more interesting issues to challenge Watters about. It’s only a Watters style ambush if someone is surprised, then repeatedly accused of something despicable and then shouted down. This was less ambush and more what we call in the news business a “walk and talk.”
shootfromthehip

I agree Dan that this wasn’t the best “ambush.” But it’s not like Jesse is easy to get–the guy has been good at dodging/hiding from those (in true coward style!) with real questions (see Gawker) for months.

At the very least this tape proves Waters is a terrible and obvious liar when caught on film. There now might be blood in the water and one of these days a more aggressive, sharp blogger with a camera is going to just destroy him.

“It’s only a Watters style ambush if someone is surprised, then repeatedly accused of something despicable and then shouted down.”

And I only partially agree with the above.

I think it’s better to just ask a lot of rapid fire questions and make him squirm. The more he pauses and asks dumb questions such as “can you repeat the question?” the more evident it becomes he is a liar. A less timid ambusher might respond with “Do you speak English? Are you having trouble following my questions? etc…”

But no need to shout anyone down–that’s a page out the wrong playbook.