Ambush of Ambush Reporter Jesse Watters Keeps Reputation for Sleaze Intact
Remember Jesse Watters? He's Bill O'Reilly's Boy Friday, the ambush reporter who was too scared to talk to John Cook, and the same guy who stalked the lawyer of murdered abortion doctor George Tiller. Well, ThinkProgress got to him.
At the Values Voter's Summit—a conservative get-together where they do things like heap awards on Bill O'Reilly for demonizing George Tiller—Watters, there to support Poppa Bear, got crept up on by ThinkProgress' Matt Corley. Media were banned from the speech, but not from standing outside the room it was taking place in.
ThinkProgress' Amanda Terkel was once ambushed by Watters while on vacation with her boyfriend. The reason? Turkel wrote about O'Reilly speaking for a rape victims' support foundation after chiding a dead rape/murder victim for wearing revealing clothing.
So, ThinkProgress goes after Watters. They finally get him. They ask him why he stalked Amanda Terkel , as Watters apparently only ambushes those who won't answer his questions. Watters' excuse:
WATTERS: We called her office.
Q: She said she got no call.
WATTERS: Yeah, no - I called her office twice.
Q: Who in the office did you call?
WATTERS: I called the main number.
Q: The main number?
WATTERS: Yeah, I called the main number and asked if Amanda Terkel was there.
Sure he did. Watters, of course, refused to answer questions for a New York Times piece Brian Stelter wrote back in April. They ask him why. Watters' response?
"I didn't refuse to comment to the New York Times," he replied. "Don't believe everything you read in the New York Times."
What'd Stelter have to say?
Sure, now we're playing a great game of media he-said-she-said, but really, who're you going to believe? This guy, an employee of a for-profit news organization infamous for their excitable, fear-mongering blowhards, who won't talk to the friendliest blogger on our masthead—Superchunk fan John Cook—or two people who tried to get him on the record, one of whom works for a non-profit?
The encounter's below:
And Watters' perspective—posted on Fox News' site—right here: