Jesse Watters has made headlines before with his infamous "Watters' World" segment of The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News. This segment frequently features ambush interviews, inflammatory questions posed with little context, and, of course, brutal mockery and humiliation of any liberal who makes the mistake of responding to Watters' disingenuous request for conversation. His past stints have included sexual harassment of female college students, painfully insensitive and condescending remarks toward low-wage workers, more sexual harassment, mocking young people for not recognizing photographs of Frank Sinatra, blatantly sexist comments about female drivers, harassing and humiliating a schizophrenic homeless man, and plenty more despicable actions, all of which he later bragged about with partner-in-crime (sometimes literally) Bill O'Reilly on national television.
This past week, however, "Watters' World" rose to previously unseen levels of depravity and criminality when he trespassed on the private property of Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash.
President Lash recently announced that Hampshire College would no longer fly the American flag in the wake of the presidential election in an attempt to "focus our efforts on addressing racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors.” Previously, the flag had been flown at half-staff for several days after students lowered it in protest of the election of Donald Trump. President Lash decided to instead remove the flag altogether due to criticism that flying it at half-staff "had unintentionally caused distress and insult to veterans."
Watters was then sent to Hampshire College to cover the protests of this action by the administration. When he got there, however, it was clear he did not have good intentions. The Fox News segment (clip starts at 2:37) shows Watters hiding, at night, in the garage of President Lash's home when Lash pulls up in his car. As soon as he opens the door of his car (in his own garage, at night, after a long day of work...), Watters immediately presses Lash about his decision to lower the flag. Lash makes it abundantly clear that he does not wish to speak with Watters and that the Fox News crew is not welcome on his private property. When he enters his home, Watters literally puts his foot inside the house to prevent Lash from closing the door on him, and continues to harass Lash. It should be noted that President Lash was unduly polite toward him, even as Watters unlawfully trespassed and attempted to enter his home.
Later it was revealed in a statement by Hampshire College spokesman John Courtmanche that Fox News did not request an interview with President Lash, as had other members of the media with whom the college complied:
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.
By not formally requesting an interview, Watters confirmed what everyone already knew about his segment: it is meant to be provocative and entertaining rather than informative or persuasive. Jesse Watters is a professional provocateur, the embodiment of an entitled, obnoxious Internet troll. It's time he is sent to jail for repeated harrassment and, now, trespassing. And it's far past time that Americans ended his career in media for good.
