Last weekend, Jesse Waters- producer for Bill O’Reilly’s show- and a camera man staked out the apartment of Think Progress’ Amanda Terkel. They proceeded to follow her vehicle for two hours to her vacation destination then ambushed her after she and her friend had checked into their lodgings and exited back into the parking lot. Watters yelled questions at her while the camera man kept rolling right up until she walked away to get away from the duo. 

The reason for this harassment? Terkel had written a small piece questioning why the Alexa Foundation- a a support group for rape survivors- would bring in Bill O’Reilly as a speaker considering some of his previous comments concerning rape victims: 

In the past, however, O’Reilly has made controversial comments about an 18-year-old woman, Jennifer Moore, who was raped and murdered, implying that it was partially her fault. O’Reilly called her “moronic,” adding:

Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She’s walking by herself on the West Side Highway, and she gets picked up by a thug. All right. Now she’s out of her mind, drunk.

That was nearly her entire article on the subject. Terkel didn’t mention in that post the well publicized sexual harassment case that was filed against O’Reilly in 2004 by Angela Mackris, a producer on his show at the time. Terkel didn’t mention that O’Reilly attempted to prevent that lawsuit by filing extortion charges before his accuser could lodge her formal complaint. 

Terkel also didn’t mention in that post the stance that O’Reilly took regarding a young boy who was abducted when he was 11 and found five years later in the home of the abductor that had been molesting him: 

On the January 15 edition of Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, host Bill O’Reilly said ofShawn Hornbeck – who was abducted at the age of 11, held for four years, and recently found in Missouri — that “there was an element here that this kid liked about this circumstances” and that he “do[esn't] buy” “theStockholm syndrome thing.” O’Reilly also said: “The situation here for this kid looks to me to be a lot more fun than what he had under his old parents. He didn’t have to go to school. He could run around and do whatever he wanted.” When fellow Fox News host Greta Van Susteren pointed out that “[s]ome kids like school,” O’Reilly replied: “Well, I don’t believe this kid did.”

The following day, during his “Talking Points Memo” segment, O’Reilly responded to viewer mail criticizing his comments about Hornbeck. O’Reilly concluded: “I hope he did not make a conscious decision to accept his captivity because” his kidnapper “made things easy for him. No school, play all day long.”

Amanda Terkel only mentioned, briefly, that it might not be wise for O’Reilly to be a speaker for an advocacy group that supports victims of perpetrators who often commit the act to show/feel that they have power over someone else (usually a woman). And in repayment, Terkel was stalked and harassed by two men that tried to assert power over her in an unguarded situation. The irony is rich. 

O’Reilly aired the segment heavily edited but I would rather gouge out my eyes and eat them than post a video of his show here. But Terkel also appeared on Keith Olbermann’s show to talk about what happened and I can post that video and live with myself. 

Amanda Terkel isn’t the first (nor is she likely to be the last) of these O’Reilly ambush victims. As is mentioned in the Olbermann interview, O’Reilly has previously justified these tactics by saying that he only sends his hit squad out after people who were either public officials or had denied the show an interview. Terkel was neither of these. But she is still added to the list of over 40 O’Reilly Harassment Machine targets. 

Think Progress has a great form letter you can email (straight from their site) to all of the sponsors of O’Reilly’s show. 

Only two of the sponsors have responded to Think Progress regarding the form letters at this time. Mark Schirmer, a spokesman for Ford, responded: “I agree with you about the rantings of the hopelessly pig-headed Mr. O’Reilly, recognize that I am just an innocent bystander in this email letter silliness.” But a higher up at Ford was quick to provide a “[Schirmer's] comments don’t represent the view of Ford Motor Company” soundbite. 

Michael Coe, spokesman for AT&T, responded with a generic “we care about our customers and research our advertising methods blah blah” response but later called Think Progress to complain that the just over 1, 000 very polite form letters he had received were a form of “harassment”. 

Someone has been taking irony lessons from Bill O’Reilly.