Error or deception? Mass. congressional candidate hoodwinks Fox News show – By Steve Annear (bostonglobe.com) / July 23 2018
A Massachusetts state senator who is running for Congress hoodwinked a Fox News show early Monday morning, in a move her campaign portrayed as taking advantage of an “error” by the network to get in the ear of President Trump, who’s known to be a big fan of the channel.
But an executive producer for the news outlet said a staff member for Barbara L’Italien’s campaign deceived them in their successful bid to get on the air.
Before being cut off abruptly, L’Italien appeared Monday via satellite alongside “Fox and Friends First” hosts Jillian Mele and Rob Schmitt, who thought they were talking to Ann Kirkpatrick — a Democratic congressional candidate from Arizona they believed would speak in favor of the policies of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Schmitt and Mele kicked off the conversation on live television by asking L’Italien — believing she was Kirkpatrick — “why you do support ICE?”
Instead of an answer to their question, they got a message from L’Italien that was aimed at Trump.
“Good morning, I’m actually here to speak directly to Donald Trump. I feel that what’s happening at the border is wrong,” said L’Italien, who is running for the Third Congressional District seat in the US House of Representatives. “I believe that separating kids from their parents is illegal and inhumane.”
L’Italien went on to identify herself, making it clear that the hosts weren’t speaking to Kirkpatrick, before continuing her message.
“I keep thinking about what we are putting parents through, imagining how terrifying that must be for those families, imagining how it would feel not knowing if I’d ever see my kids again,” L’Italien said, referencing Trump’s short-lived policy of separating immigrant children from their families at the southern border.
As L’Italien continued to talk, she was interrupted by the two hosts, who seemed to still think they were speaking to Kirkpatrick.
“OK, but that practice has stopped at this point, Miss Kirkpatrick,” Schmitt claimed, a look of confusion on his face. “Right?”
Mele added, “Kids have been reunited with their families.”
L’Italien identified herself a second time, while speaking over the hosts, before Schmitt asked, “Who is this? Who is this?”
Amid the confusion, L’Italien was cut off from the station’s live feed and disappeared from the split-screen.
“That didn’t go as planned,” Schmitt conceded.
“That’s what happens sometimes,” Mele chimed in. “Time for a break?”
Not long after being kicked off of the show, L’Italien’s campaign issued a statement to the Globe to give its account of what happened.
Joe Katz, a spokesman for L’Italien’s campaign, said a Fox News representative called him on his cell phone Sunday seeking to set up an interview with Kirkpatrick.
Katz told the Globe that he last worked for Kirkpatrick in 2010, and had “no idea why they would have contacted me.”
“She has had at least two spokespeople since then,” he said.
But Katz never corrected the Fox News representatives about the mix-up, and he booked the time slot anyway.
“Fox News is where you go when you want to talk to Donald Trump,” Katz said, “and Barbara felt she had an obligation to her constituents to take advantage of that opportunity.
But in a statement to the Globe, Desiree Dunne, executive producer of “Fox & Friends First,” said Katz actively misled the station.
According to Dunne, Katz was the press contact they had “on file” for Kirkpatrick. When contacted, he accepted the invitation on her behalf, Dunne said.
According to Dunne, Katz followed up with an e-mail confirming the segment, which included background information and a campaign logo for Kirkpatrick, the statement said.
Fox did not respond to a request for a copy of that e-mail.
According to Dunne, Katz wasn’t the only one to go along with the ruse. Dunne said that “despite speaking to producers prior to the interview, L’Italien did not identify herself as anything other than Kirkpatrick until she was live on air.”
L’Italien’s campaign blamed Fox News for what transpired, calling it an “error” on the station’s part.
In response to questions about whether he had deceived the Fox show, Katz told the Globe: “We showed the exact same commitment to truth, fairness, and accuracy that Fox News always has.”
L’Italien, who is running to fill the seat of retiring Representative Niki Tsongas in the Third District, which encompasses 37 cities and towns northwest of Boston, tweeted out a video and statement Monday after appearing on the show, a message she said she would have delivered on television “if I hadn’t been cut off.”
She also sent out a tweet asking for donations to her campaign to “Help me fight back against attacks from the conservative right since my appeal to @realDonaldTrumpthis morning on @foxandfriends.”
L’Italien didn’t return a call for comment to her cell phone from the Globe.
Following the botched segment, Schmitt, one of the show’s hosts, sarcastically tweeted that it was a “fun morning,” and claimed L’Italien “hijacked” the show with a “publicity stunt.” The tweet included a side-by-side picture of Kirkpatrick and L’Italien.
As a recording of the segment continued to make the rounds online, Schmitt said on Twitter that L’Italien “lied” to get on the show, and that the station’s “legal team is on it.”
Mele, for her part, called it “One heck of a morning so far,” and said L’Italien using her unintended time on live television was “kind of a weak move.”
Meanwhile, Kirkpatrick, the guest Fox had hoped to have on air, distanced herself from the station’s narrative, and said in a tweet that she is opposed to Trump’s immigration policies.
“This morning, Fox News and other outlets put out false reports on my position on ICE, without a single word from me,” she said.
Fun morning. We expected democrat Anne Kirkpatrick (left) but got hijacked by Democrat @teambarbara w/ a publicity stunt pic.twitter.com/s5bZ2HOrcz
— Rob Schmitt (@SchmittNYC) July 23, 2018
I was stuck in an elevator before work then I get to work and this happens. One heck of a Morning so far. By the way, kind of a weak move to do this on live TV. https://t.co/53YLozNChP
— Jillian Mele (@jillianmele) July 23, 2018
