Jason Mattera Ambushes Bono Impersonator Pavel Sfera: Video

Jason Mattera Interviews the Wrong Bono

Jason Mattera's ambush-interview of U2 frontman Bono was pulled from breitbart.com with only a vague explanation. It turns out, though, that "bad boy reporter" Jason Mattera didn't interview Bono at all. Instead, he confronted a Bono impersonator.

Jason Mattera's Bono ambush was also posted to Glenn Beck's The Blaze, which has pulled the video and offered a more detailed explanation.

What could have tipped Jason Mattera off was that the man he interviewed didn't sound like Bono. Didn't exactly look like Bono, either. He was pretty close, though: Pavel Sfera is a professional Bono impersonator. A quick tip, though, to Jason Mattera and other would-be Bono ambushers: Bono is Irish. He has an Irish accent in real life.

Here's part of the exchange between Mattera and fake-Bono, which is quite funny in its proper context (i.e. Jason Mattera's "basic shoeleather journalism" resulted in his ambushing the wrong guy):

Jason Mattera: By dodging taxes on royalties are you raiding the poverty programs you purport to champion?
"Bono": No.
Jason Mattera: No? Don’t you want governments to be generous with other people’s money and not yours?
"Bono": I don’t have control over that.
Jason Mattera: How do you not have control over that? It’s your company. Are you not in charge of your own company?
"Bono": It’s not my company.
Jason Mattera: You have no say in what U2 does?
"Bono": Not particularly.
Jason Mattera: You don’t? You don’t have a say in what U2 does?
"Bono": No.

Pavel Sfera only impersonates Bono as far as appearance, and does not do interviews in-character. Jason Mattera acknowledged the error, saying that he "got punked". That's not entirely accurate, though, since Mattera himself initiated the interview. Sort of like when someone steals a bait car.

Well, now Bono knows that Jason Mattera is after him. Perhaps he'll keep a few impersonators on hand in the future. Actually, this isn't a bad way to deal with ambush journalism in general.

The ambush video has been set to private, but has re-emerged via other outlets. You can see the Jason Mattera video below.

(via Media Matters)

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Breitbart's Jason Mattera gets punked by Bono of U2 impersonator

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