I was thinking some of these very thoughts during the Helen Thomas thing. She was being flippant and a little crude (and possibly ironic).

By the way, why should we start ignoring the writings of a noted journalist and instead start focusing on the random remarks she made extemporaneously to some nobody? If Helen Thomas had simply said, “The Israels should get the f—- out of Gaza and the West Bank,” she would have still been fired.

There are occasions when circumstances warrant an on-the-run or undercover interview, but most of the time it seems unnecessary. The problem I have with these kind of surprise interviews is that the interviewee is not at his or her best. He doesn’t have his positions ready; he hasn’t had time to consider the implications of his remarks. If Helen Thomas had been writing those remarks in an editorial, she would have given the sentence more nuance.

One of the underlying problems behind gotcha video journalism is that American politicians are so inaccessible and many don’t make public appearances. They will talk to local TV stations and maybe CNN or Fox, but if you’re a freelancer or (worse) a print journalist, you’re out of luck.

A question remains about how the legal system can deal with people who make fake entrapment vids. ACORN is not a private company, so they’re not likely to start a SLAPP lawsuit. If a libel suit were ever initiated, would O’Keefe be held solely responsible or would broadcasters like Fox? I have to wonder if Fox made O’Keefe indemnify Fox against lawsuits when it started running his videos.

Finally about Borat, you might enjoy my post about how Cohen got his subjects to sign legal releases .