The New York Times finally asked Fox News, "Hey what's the deal with the constant stalky ambush interviews?" The answer was priceless.

The official line at Fox News, you see is that the network sometimes tries not to pointlessly stalk and harass people. It sometimes uses ambush interviews as a last resort.

[Fox News producer David] Tabacoff - who started a telephone interview by asking, "This is going to be a fair piece, correct?" - said the interviews are "part of the journalistic mission" of The O'Reilly Factor...



"We're trying to get answers from people," he said. "Sometimes the only way to get them is via these methods."

(Emphasis added.)

Other times, then, Fox producers must be spending "days... waiting in trucks and hotels" for the sheer ratings value. Such was the case with Amanda Terkel, the Think Progress blogger who was followed by Fox News from her apartment across state lines into Virginia, where she and a friend were accosted by a cameraman and O'Reilly Factor producer.

Fox didn't so much as try to call Terkel or come to her office, she said on MSNBC a few weeks ago. (See attached clip.) The network just went straight into a manhunt.

Perhaps Fox News should just admit it will take a camera anywhere, at the drop of a hat, in order to keep viewers entertained. People don't hold that sort of behavior against, say, TMZ. Do they really expect much better from The O'Reilly Factor?