I think Amanda Terkel has said most of what needs to be said about Bill O'Reilly's producers stalking and then ambushing her while she was in Virginia on a weekend trip. What's most obscene is that O'Reilly posits these events as journalistic "confrontations" as though there was some value to springing on someone and pelting them with aggressive questions rather than just picking up the phone and asking them in a civilized manner. It's not as though these moments provide any kind of insight or valuable information, rather they're meant to intimidate the subject of the confrontation for something they've said--in this case, Terkel questioning O'Reilly's dubious statements on rape victims suggesting that they're somehow responsible for being raped. What makes it even more distasteful is that, as Steve Benen points out, O'Reilly seems to think that such behavior is unacceptable when celebrities are the subject -- which is to say that if someone did the same thing to him, it would be totally out of line, because, you know, he's famous.
-- A. Serwer
