Enter O'Reilly producer Jesse Watters. Well known for ambushing O'Reilly targets, Watters was sent to attend a GE stockholders meeting in Orlando, Florida. He's a stockholder so he could get in.
After Immelt's remarks, Watters asked a question during the Q & A session (see video below).
"Last week on MSNBC Janeane Garofalo said that Americans who attended tea parties and were protesting high taxes and government spending were racist rednecks," he said. "She was not challenged by the anchor on MSNBC. Are you OK with that and do you consider this a form of hate speech?"
Immelt couldn't answer the question immediately as Watters (who didn't identify himself) was applauded by stakeholders for the question.
"My own personal beliefs aside, I believe that MSNBC has some standards that they follow and that's what you are seeing," Immelt said.
But unlike Watters, Immelt was greeted with boos.
Watters kept going. "With all due respect, this is the kind of hate that MSNBC traffics on a regular basis. Are you comfortable with this and do you think this hurts the GE brand?" he asked -- again to applause.
"Again, we're in the network business," Immelt answered. "We compete with FOX News, MSNBC, and others. Again, I don't censor what they do or what they say despite the fact that I might disagree with some of it or much of it, some of the time."
Right side
As we mentioned, the right side is cheering this incident on.
The Ace of Spades calls the incident "awesome" and says "it's the response, not the question that is heartening."
HotAir wonders: "Why the sudden shareholder crankiness? Is it because Maddow’s ratings are tanking and Fox is crushing them in every time slot?"
