December 8, 2011

VIDEO: Fox’s Bill O’Reilly Gets a Taste of His Own Ambush Medicine

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The ambush interview is a common feature on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News show. An O’Reilly underling will spring on an unsuspecting subject—blogger Amanda Terkel, a Florida county judge with whom O’Reilly disagreed, Columbia Journalism Review editor Mike Hoyt, among many others—press a camera in his or her face, and pepper them with leading questions.

On Wednesday night, O’Reilly got a taste of his own medicine. A protester spotted O’Reilly near DC’s Willard InterContinental hotel, the site of a fundraiser for GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, turned on the camera, and repeatedly asked O’Reilly if he’d attended the Gingrich event. O’Reilly responded by shoving his umbrella in the face of the ambusher and later complaining to a nearby cop, the clip shows. The video was sent to Mother Jones by a staffer with the Service Employees International Union.

Watch:

O’Reilly’s confrontation wasn’t the only scuffle between protesters flying under the “we are the 99 percent” banner and conservative figures. Earlier in the evening, as Mother Jones got on camera, a dozen or so boisterous protesters crashed the Gingrich fundraiser in downtown DC. After nearly ten minutes of chanting and testimonials, the protesters were ejected from the candlelit event by hotel security and other angry attendees.

Watch:

Protesters also visited the home of House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday, and said they were planning several other actions throughout the day. The actions are in conjunction with “Take Back the Capitol,” a 99-percent-themed series of protests around Washington, DC.

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That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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