The O’Reilly Factor correspondent Jesse Waters had the cops called on him after he tried to surprise Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash on Wednesday. Watters’ ambush came after the college’s American flag was lowered by students and burned after the election. In response, Lash stated that he would not raise the flag again (for the foreseeable future) to “focus our efforts on addressing racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors.”
Naturally, this made Lash an O’Reilly subject of interest. During this segment, Watters attempted to interview some folks about the flag situation and got nowhere, and the hard-hitting journalist wanted answers. So, he lurked outside Lash’s home. He politely introduced himself, but Lash seemed to be in no mood to talk to him: “Not good to see you.”
The two spoke a bit before Lash tried to enter his home, but Watters stuck his foot in the doorway, so Lash was unable to shut him out. Watters continued to press Lash: “You’ve made a lot of people very upset. I think you owe the country an explanation.” At that point (as was confirmed by a Hampshire College spokesperson), the campus security and local cops were called when Watters would not leave the premises:
“We regularly engage with the media and participate in interviews and have done so often in recent weeks. Members of the media are familiar with widely accepted protocols to contact the office of communications to coordinate interview requests. In this instance, a Fox reporter and camera person did not request an interview but rather entered private property and then tried to prevent the president of the college from entering his private home. As a result, campus security and the local police department were alerted.”
This episode would come as a shock, but Watters has a track record of riling people up, just for the sake of doing it. In May, he got into a scuffle with Huffington Post Washington bureau chief Ryan Grim at the White House Correspondents dinner. And few could forget his biting segment on Asian voters, which was quickly criticized by other media outlets.
(Via The Washington Post)