Neil Munro, the Irish-born journalist who made the news for interrupting President Obama during a speech on immigration at the White House on Friday has defended his actions on the Hannity show on Fox.
Munro, from Dublin works for the right-wing site the Daily Caller and interrupted Obama’s remarks in the Rose Garden on immigration last week.
Speaking of Obama he told Hannity, “We at The Daily Caller will not try to be easy on him and try not to be easy on the next president. It’s our job to work for the American people through our publication to provide them the information that the politicians are reluctant to hand out. We’ve got to do our job.”
“The only way to ask the questions was get him at the end as he’s leaving just before he dashes back to the Oval Office, and, yes, I mistimed it,” Munro said. “I thought I was getting him at the end. Frankly, I was wrong about that.”
Hannity stated in defence of Munro that Ronald Reagan was often interrupted from the podium
“I think you should have waited until he was finished but you recognize that. You said so. But I think the media’s done it a lot themselves so for them to be critical seems hypocritical to me.” Hanity stated
In a seperate interview given to Journal.ie in Ireland, Munro said he was surprised to hear himself condemned by a host of the nation’s top journalists, both liberal and conservatives, and has said the focus on his actions is 'ridiculous.'
Munro, who was born, raised and educated in Ireland, claimed he asked a 'conventional, obvious question' during the Rose Garden press conference on Friday.
But no one has ever interrupted a sitting president of the United States in the middle of a White House speech before, so Munro's actions set a precedent.
'Why'd you favour foreigners over Americans?' Munro asked.
The president was visibly infuriated to find himself interrupted at that moment and responded that he would respond to reporters questions later. The decision to stop deporting the children of illegal immigrants was 'the right thing to do for the American people,' the president added.
Later as Obama walked away from the podium, Munro shouted: 'What about American workers who are unemployed, while you employ foreigners?'
'It is ridiculous for reporters to focus on a reporter who asks a conventional, obvious question. Farmers don’t fuss over a farmer who milked the cows, and welders don’t talk about welders who have welded something.'
Munro studied at Gonzaga College before becoming a White House correspondent for the right wing internet site The Daily Caller.
The former UCD student told The Journal his interest in writing began when he landed an archivist job at an Irish government funded magazine in the early 1980's.
'That eventually led me to the United States where I got a job at National Journal in 1999 or so. There, I did a few good articles about stem-cells, the Tea Party, transsexuals, and Islam.'
After eleven years at the National Journal, Munro moved to Washington DC where he became White House correspondent for The Daily Caller where he says he writes 'for Americans outside the beltway.'
'Indirectly, they gave me a Green Card, so I should repay them,' he added.
Here's the video:
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.patrickesq | Jun 23, 2012, 07:44 PM EDT
Leave it to Fox news to highlight and showcase a rude reporter. It seems he may well qualify for a job at Fox!
seanomelb | Jun 20, 2012, 08:42 PM EDT
boring borefield and his skewed GOP position is he the bigoted Limbaugh in disguise???
peterson | Jun 20, 2012, 06:06 PM EDT
They need more people like Munro who are not afraid to speak up.
ciaradexy | Jun 20, 2012, 05:16 PM EDT
Why is this foreigner in the US complaining about foreigners taking jobs from Americans?
Bythebay | Jun 20, 2012, 05:09 PM EDT
What Irish Government funded magazine could he have worked for in the early 1980s, anyone in Ireland know? He's claiming he's in his 50s??
borefield | Jun 20, 2012, 03:29 PM EDT
Ferguson finn, there is only censorship in the USA when it comes to Obama and his white house. It really is scary and is frightenly like Germany in Hitlers time. It certainly wasn't frowned upon when Bush was in, Sara Palin was maligned by the left press. This is called protecting Obama time. I am so disgusted.
Bythebay | Jun 20, 2012, 03:13 PM EDT
If you think this is heckling in the US you've never seen Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons in the Westminster Parliament in London. Munro (if that's his real name) looks angelic compared to it.
Bythebay | Jun 20, 2012, 11:02 AM EDT
pilib04, this is Neil Munro not Henry Munro. Neil Munro (1863–1930) was a Scottish journalist, newspaper editor, author and literary critic.
Fergus Finn | Jun 20, 2012, 04:39 AM EDT
It seems that democracy is dead in America..It is the job of a free press to ask awkward questions of government as and when they, the press see fit. Unhappily there is censorship in the media of America when it should be the other way around for a so-called free press. When a reporter takes a brave stand to ask the awkward question, what happens? He is pilloried by his own peers no less. The language of some of the replies/posts etc are reminiscent of the Nazi era in Europe. Thank God we do have a free press in Ireland and politicians are not gods unlike America..I for one, would be afraid to live in America as it seems that freedom of speech is dangerous. Land of the free indeed.
branagh | Jun 19, 2012, 10:27 PM EDT
He's a bit intellectually challenged I would say from this interview. This might explain why he thought Obama had finished speaking even if he was only mid-sentence and midway through his remarks.
stanJames | Jun 19, 2012, 10:09 PM EDT
Teh guy has a right to make a fool of himself. But I've never seen such hatred and demonization of the USA President. All of us need to remember that the religious base of the republican party is the southern evangelical / baptists .............While there are of course exceptions, this is the group - the so called bible belt that still long for the days of slavery and the KKK and segregation..................And whose worst nightmare has come true - our first black president.........
pilib04 | Jun 19, 2012, 09:47 PM EDT
Henry Munro was a United Irishman. I am sure he would be disappointed in his namesake.
pilib04 | Jun 19, 2012, 09:45 PM EDT
Refresh my memory, who was the last President who was heckled at the White House??? None, you say? So why should President Obama be subjected to it?
seanomelb | Jun 19, 2012, 06:46 PM EDT
Dumb and dumber trying to defend the indefensible,a couple of middle of the road racist fascist. UI see the Fox/GOP clones are out in force defending their royalty.
mccannon | Jun 19, 2012, 06:42 PM EDT
To the author of this article it is not unprecedented for a President to be interrupted by the press to ask a question. Go look up your history before you post your Liberal bias puke all over this page. Reagan and both Bushes have experienced this as well, therefore it is not unprecedented! I thought Munro was awesome! At least he had the balls to ask the self appointed King Obama a question! Obama never answers questions so when was he supposed to ask? He should be praised for his actions. You go Munro!
sebouhian | Jun 19, 2012, 03:32 PM EDT
I'm only a bit perturbed by reporters shouting out without being recognized by the President. My reaction to most of the comments supporting Munro are so bitterly mean that I'm not as concerned by Munro as by his "spokesmen" who could easily have entered a decent discussion about Munro's questions/statements. I am not only disappointed by the lack of just plain courtesy, but mainly about such egregiously biased hate speech. This is a very sad example of raving emotions rather than sharp minds engaged by a significant issue. What a waste.--George Sebouhian
borefield | Jun 19, 2012, 02:46 PM EDT
Rugbyplayer! Now, now, don't be bitter. The anointed one needs to express his true self once in a while before the left wing media gets to slant it before it becomes public. One can always see through shallow, arrogant ans deceptive people. Don't sulk, it's true
Scrivner | Jun 19, 2012, 01:50 PM EDT
If Barack would answer questions once in a while, there would be less of a need for a Neil Munro to jump in prematurely. Also, the question was valid, the response was snarkky.
francisquinn | Jun 19, 2012, 01:47 PM EDT
If you call the Daily Caller a right wing station than you must add left-wing to this disgraceful president....
rugbyplayer | Jun 19, 2012, 01:35 PM EDT
Two clowns: Hannity and Munro! And where else do clowns debut? On Fox News of course!
MegK311 | Jun 19, 2012, 01:29 PM EDT
It may not have been the correct thing to do, interrupt the President. But it was such a treat to have a reporter throw him a hard ball question. The left wing media usually slobbers all over the President. We need more reporters throwing hard ball questions.
carrickcourt | Jun 19, 2012, 01:19 PM EDT
Shocking to see such behavior from someone who has the same name of my late Scots-Canadian Great Uncle Neil Munro. The surname Munro comes from a river in Ulster by the way.
hollabackgurl | Jun 19, 2012, 01:14 PM EDT
SO the immigrant journalist from Ireland blasts the President for helping immigrants. Then the non-native blasts the president for a bill that will give rights to non-natives. Stay classy, Neil Munro.
Nicomax | Jun 19, 2012, 12:09 PM EDT
Seems like we may have a media hot shot to replace the recently deceased Andrew Breitbart as the pesky right wing noise maker.
BrianO | Jun 19, 2012, 11:42 AM EDT
AengusOg. taking video, and audio in context is not a strong point of the media outlets, Eexamples. newt gingrich "medicaire will die on the vine" in context was We will make the medical support system so good that medicare will die on the vine. Example George Zimmerman I think he looks black, edited out was the question from the police dispatcher "what did he look like was he white , black?" The latest will be Mitt Romney and the Hoagie sandwich comment.
AengusOg | Jun 19, 2012, 11:32 AM EDT
Watch the entire incident on YouTube. the President wasn't 'heckled'. Heckled means badgered. Mr. Munro interrupted the President once. The President had just said, very emphatically, "It's the right thing to do" at the 4:41 mark. Mr. M unro fired his question at the President immediately. If you are not blindly liberal, you could appreciate that the reporter merely jumped the gun. Mr. Munro did not repeat his error. As is his habit, the President did not field questions at the end of his statement, which lasted about 8 minutes. Watch the entire 8:50 of the address and draw your own conclusions. As for the word "Heckled" in the headline, any fair-minded reader knows that IC is not a 'no spin zone' and does not provide 'fair and balanced' reporting.
lokionline | Jun 19, 2012, 11:14 AM EDT
The thing I keep on seeing is this... "Former UCD student"...
Neil, as a UCD graduate I have to tell you, this is not cool.
SeamusMor | Jun 19, 2012, 10:52 AM EDT
The reporter forgets his place. The purpose of the gathering was to record a statement from the President of the United States, the most powerful personage on the planet, not to suffer the ill mannered interruption of an unknown reporter from an obscure publication.
eiriamach | Jun 19, 2012, 10:19 AM EDT
Unfortunately, johnshiel, IC writers obviously do NOT "assiduously ID 'right wing' media outlets." If you click the "Associated Press" link on the IC article about Vatican leaks, you will arrive, without warning, at FOX News! The IC writer should have identified that link accurately. There are hundreds of Associated Press versions of the Vatican bank financial leaks story online--why give a disguised "right wing" source? If IC writers think the Daily Caller is right wing and FOX is not, then there can't be any "left wing" left to identify!
McNamara31 | Jun 19, 2012, 10:15 AM EDT
Does this really surprise anyone that FOX (the sewer) of news and distorted facts, would have this self seving opportunist Munro on the program? It's the perfect example of what Rupert,Roger and crew do.
mayoman | Jun 19, 2012, 10:13 AM EDT
Munro apparently wants to raise his visibility, and this is certainly one way of doing it. His big mouth and the aid and comfort of the cooperative Sean Hannity, (who hasn't met a right-wing big-mouth he hasn't embraced), will help him get at least a few moments in the lunatic limelight. And then hopefully he'll simply return to his quiet obscurity.
jamthecat | Jun 19, 2012, 10:12 AM EDT
Let me see if I've got this straight -- a man who was born, raised, and educated in another country and came to the US to find work is asking the President why people like him should be allowed to work in the US? And he's a hero to the right instead of a job-stealing foreigner, all because he exhibited poor manners in the presense of a man the right-wing-nuts despise?? Seriously? And they call everyone else hypocrites for calling him out on it? SERIOUSLY? I'd laugh if it wasn't so heartbreakingly stupid and proving, yet again, exactly what is wrong with America, today.
eiriamach | Jun 19, 2012, 10:04 AM EDT
Logicians call this a "loaded question" (an informal fallacy of logic); judges and lawyers call it "presuming facts not in evidence": 'Why'd you favour foreigners over Americans?' Munro asked. Fallacious and adversarial it certainly IS. President Obama was exceedingly gracious not to call attention to Munro's stupidity. A lawyer who asked that kind of question more than once in a court room would receive a harsh admonishment from the magistrate.
eiriamach | Jun 19, 2012, 09:56 AM EDT
I need a job and I do not consider Neil Munro a hero. A lackey yes, a hero, no.
dev4 | Jun 19, 2012, 09:54 AM EDT
what a reporter asking a question what a novel idea.cnn should hire this guy maybe their ratings would improve.
johnshiel | Jun 19, 2012, 09:51 AM EDT
If IC writers are going to assiduously ID "right wihg" media outlets as such, you must give equal attrribution to left wing sources. Think about it, don't just breeze past this challenge. You'd want to be described as "fair, would you not?
BulldogMania | Jun 19, 2012, 09:39 AM EDT
In the USA this guy is a HERO! He had the nerve to stand up to the lies and hypocrisy of the Obama administration. Those that support Obama, his lies and his failed policies are shrinking in number every day. America is waking up...which is good news for the millions of people around the world in need of a job.
torbreezy | Jun 19, 2012, 09:32 AM EDT
When is "speaking truth to power" ever out of vogue?