Bold New Fox News Interview Technique: Lying

Fox News hosts have been hammering Janeane Garofalo and MSNBC for the comedienne’s comment (made on Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC show) that the Tea Party protests were “about hating a black man in the White House.” Fox News reporter Griff Jenkins caught up with her in Boston with a hand-held camera, and alongside local radio host Ken Pittman he engaged her in a six-minute interview outside of a Starbucks. Around two and a half minutes in, Garofalo asked Jenkins and Pittman who they were and who they “with.” Thirty seconds later, she repeated the question and Jenkins disguised his identity as a Fox News reporter.

From the full video posted on the Fox News web site—on which Jenkins is identified as a “Fox News correspondent”:

This is pretty shameless. It’s one thing if you’re a reporter working undercover in, say, a supermarket that’s putting tainted meat on the shelves, to disguise your identity. But if you’re sticking a camera into a celebrity’s face and she repeatedly asks you if you’re with the media? Anyone from “60 Minutes” on down to TMZ would say where he/she is from, just as most “O’Reilly Factor” producers immediately announce their affiliations, knowing that they’re going to get hostile reactions from their subjects.

Simply put, Jenkins lied and then Fox News edited the lie from their broadcast. Pretty pathetic all around.

UPDATE: Of course, Jenkins might have his reasons for preferring outright lies to admitting his Fox News affiliation:

UPDATE 2: “The O’Reilly Factor” ran part of the interview, too, and identified Jenkins as a “‘Factor’ producer,” something else he did not tell Garofalo.

UPDATE 3: Garofalo talked about this interview with Marc Maron, and it’s clear that she had no idea that Jenkins was a Fox News employee. She said that she was ambushed by “Ken Pittman and his male companion,” who “put a camera in my face.”

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