Fox News Gets a Griff

ST. PAUL—The helicopters hovering over downtown St. Paul on the afternoon of Sept. 1 had long before become such a customary sound that they weren’t heard anymore, but as Griff Jenkins, the chipper and youthful-looking 37-year-old reporter for Fox News, stood outside the Xcel Energy Center contemplating his next assignment, they became relevant again.

“Apparently, they’ve confiscated the protestors’ jars of urine,” he said. “That makes me feel better.”

The air was sticky. A police officer in riot gear walked by. A German shepherd followed in his wake. Mr. Jenkins gazed to the west where, on the other side of a tall security gate, a teeming mass of bandanas, beehive beards and messenger bags was churning, chanting, shaking fists, banging drums and striding through the streets.

Protestors! They had materialized in force in St. Paul hours earlier. Now it was Mr. Jenkins’ special Labor Day job to interview the progressive protestors for the bête noire of the left, Fox News. Not exactly a cakewalk of an assignment.

Mr. Jenkins was dressed for the occasion in gray slacks, a pair of black leather shoes, a blue button-down shirt and—pointedly—a Fox News baseball cap. He carried a microphone with “Fox News” in big letters on its sides.

Mr. Jenkins sized up the fence. It had been erected in part to keep the anarchists from disrupting the convention. But now it was preventing Mr. Jenkins from interrupting the anarchists. He asked a police officer: Could he be let out? No. “Sometimes reporting on a convention is like that scene in Spinal Tap where the band can’t find the stage,” said Mr. Jenkins.

Along with his camera crew, Mr. Jenkins backtracked around the gates. They would outflank the protesters and greet them on the grassy lawns outside the state capitol. En route, they were joined by two security guards, dressed in dark suits and wraparound reflective sunglasses.

Roughly a week earlier, Mr. Jenkins had waded into the protestors in Denver without the aid of a security crew. Things had gotten entertainingly ugly (YouTube-worthy ugly), and now his bosses were insisting on precautions. Back at his home in Washington, D.C., Mr. Jenkins has a wife and two toddlers. When asked, he said that his wife (a former engineer for the Department of Defense) didn’t mind so much when he was sent out on these protest assignments. After all, during the Olympics, she had watched her husband report from Times Square wearing only a Speedo. “That surprised her,” said Mr. Jenkins.

The crew crested a hill. There, they came upon a hipster marching band. Mr. Jenkins flipped on his microphone. “Who are you guys?” said Mr. Jenkins. “What are you protesting?” A tuba player looked at the Fox News microphone and shook her head. A snare drummer for the Rude Mechanical Orchestra sidled up to Mr. Jenkins and drowned out his questions. The band’s standard-bearer draped a flag in front of the camera. Mr. Jenkins walked away. “Those antics show that they’re not serious,” he said.

As the Fox News crew approached the capitol, one of the guards warned everyone to remove the press badges that hung around their necks. The anarchists, he said, might try and grab the badges and drag you down. “The No. 1 rule is to protect the camera guy, because he has a blind spot,” said Mr. Jenkins. “I should know.”

Mr. Jenkins first joined Fox News in 2001 as a producer for 'War Stories With Oliver North.' Two years later, at the start of the war, Mr. Jenkins traveled to Iraq as a freelance cameraman. Afterward, he landed a producing job in Fox News’ D.C. bureau, where he worked closely with the late Tony Snow.

Somewhere along the way, Mr. Jenkins—who has a wiry build and wears semi-ironic thick-framed glasses—parlayed his deadpan delivery and aw-shucks grin into the occasional on-air gig. He has since earned a reputation as a talented field humorist and unfailingly good sport. In 2007, he became a full-time general assignment correspondent focusing on playful stories. No matter how absurd the assignment, Mr. Jenkins is game.

On this particular Monday afternoon—with most of the top dogs of the TV business (Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper, Shepard Smith and on and on) reporting live on Hurricane Gustav from the Gulf Coast and the convention floor more or less empty and abandoned—the playing field in St. Paul had been yielded momentarily to those further down the TV news food chain. Mr. Jenkins was ready for action.

Shortly after 3 p.m., the crew reached the capitol. Throngs of protestors were milling about. The scent of musky body odor hung in the air. Mr. Jenkins got right to work, interviewing a guy slathered head-to-toe in orange body paint (“This is performance art,” he said. “I’m a deconstructed Republican”), and a woman in a pink “Sex Not War” T-shirt. She said she was a pacifist.

Then things got tense. Mr. Jenkins was just wrapping up an interview when the signal went out. “These guys are with Fox News,” someone shouted. A crowd of onlookers rushed in, forming a circle around Mr. Jenkins. As Mr. Jenkins interviewed a teenager with a Mohawk, the jeering began. “Fuck the corporate media!” someone yelled. “FOX NEWS SUCKS!” The chant spread.  “FOX NEWS SUCKS!  “FOX NEWS SUCKS!  “FOX NEWS SUCKS!”

Mr. Jenkins ignored the taunts and continued to ask individuals who they were and what they were protesting.

“UNFAIR, UNBALANCED! UNFAIR, UNBALANCED!”

A colicky, suburban-dad type jostled his way through the crowd. “Why don’t you get a real job?” he yelled in Mr. Jenkins’ face. Then he gave the correspondent the finger. “Fuck you.” And with that a half-dozen fists came flashing forward, middle fingers raised. The security guys, stone-faced, moved in closer. But Mr. Jenkins remained cool, unfazed.