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: MORE >>
What Will Happen at a $64K Dinner with Sarah Palin?
So: journalist, writer, and Sarah Palin critic Joe McGinniss was outfoxed in his attempt to bid on a dinner with Sarah Palin by $3,200, bringing the final bid to $63,500. The winner, please? Ms. Cathy Maples, who hails from Huntsville, Alabama, come on down! You're the next diner on Iron Chef: Wasilla. Maples put in the final bid on Palin's eBay auction for dinner with her; proceeds will go to Ride2Recovery, an organization helping wounded soldiers get by on their way back to a normal existence after getting FUBAR'd because they didn't have the proper resources or infrastructure for their missions laid out for them, often because that money went to private, non-government defense contractors. Like the one Cathy Maples works for! Other things Ms. Maples could've bid on in the auction include: Lunch with former Bush aide Karl Rove (which went for $16,000), a "CSI: New York" set experience and party with star Gary Sinise ($4,150), and a Rob Lowe-autographed baseball jersey ($620). Hm. Between dinner with Palin, lunch with Rove, a party with Sinise, and Sam Seaborne's baseball jersey (?!), tough call. Maples has apparently met Palin twice before, is a huge fan, and is one of many Americans who would like to see Sarah Palin take the presidency. She has to pay for the ride up to Alaska, but can bring four people to dinner. She says the plan right now is to bring her two grandchildren, 13 and 18 years old, their mother and the 18-year-old's girlfriend. Functional! A learning experience for all. Maples will be treated to America's Best View of Russia, while McGinniss will write contritely congratulatory letters where he basically writes, HA, you paid all that money to have dinner with Sarah Palin, sucker: As one of the underbidders, I salute you and congratulate you on winning the dinner with Sarah Palin. I'm pleased that my bids helped increase the total proceeds that will go to our wounded veterans through Ride2Recovery. I wish you the best for your forthcoming trip to Alaska. Although I would have enjoyed the opportunity for a frank exchange of views with Gov. Palin, I'm pleased that someone with your record of accomplishment will grace her table. Sincerely, Joe McGinniss Ah, the menu, though. Might I suggest a Black Truffle Squirrel Soup, served behind a pure Alaskan Mooseburger, topped off by—appropriately—Jeffrey Chodorow's infamous "Baked Alaska" recipe. The kind of food meant to stimulate an open exchange of ideas about progress, family values, dedication to one's post, and of course, the children of children. $64K well spent, Ms. Maples. It's no entry into Conde Nast's Orangina-barren cafeteria, but it'll do. It'll do. MORE >>
Tucker Max's Campaign of Hate Against Chicago's Transit System
The Mad AssHatter Himself, Tucker Max, went to war with Chicago's Transit System over a series of advertisements for his film, I Hope They Serve Rosé On Fire Island, or whatever it's called. Guess who won? The ads were poetic ditties of white text on a black background. Like: "Blind girls never see you coming" and "Strippers Will Not Tolerate Disrespect (Just Kidding)." But: Max, who seems to necessitate creative new suffixes being appended to words like "douche" on a daily basis—mostly by his fans—had his ads thankfully removed by Chicago's Transit Boards in a transit-based struggle that would make Rosa Parks want to rise from the dead to beat the piss out of Max for messing with her legacy of transit-based struggle. Max responded in a release maturely and appropriately, handling the situation with the decorum and class we've come to expect from him: "Blow me," he wrote. Max was quoted as saying it was "the culmination of a two-month-long effort by angry anti-male groups." Also, this: "...Women are not stupid. They would not support me if I hated them, and the fact that they come out in the hundreds of thousands to buy my book and go to my movie is proof that I not only love women, but my art is in fact pro-woman." At first glance, less egregious is Tucker's intentionally inflammatory statement that his "art" is pro-women as it is as it is "art." But then, it all begins to make sense: this is performance art. Max's entire shtick is performance art. It's New Museum-level shit. In fact, Max probably knows exactly what he's doing, how people are going to react to it, and the exact amount of publicity it's going to generate. Which is why it's strange that, you know, he made such a shitty movie that nobody's going to want to see, and thus, make no money. So what would tie this all together? The forthcoming revelation that Max is just a deeply-closeted homosexual, inching his way out by purporting the extremities of the most straight, blase, boring, stupid, and utterly predictable proto-male sexuality there is: his, or his act's. The kind given the treatment a "salon" of fellow "bros" out there could appreciate in the form of a book and its poop-like adaptation. Tucker Max could be the world's most interesting gay advocate out there if this thing comes full-circle. Then again, he's probably just a dick. City of Chicago: good on you. MORE >>
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