20/20 has really been a comedy of errors for Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, but yesterday
something truly magical happened.
She interviewed the supposed CEO of a pork producer and processor, the CEO supposedly
named Dennis Oregon from Smithfield Foods.
And it turns out that she wasn't really interviewing Dennis, Oregon, but instead it was an animal
rights activist named Matt Johnson from the organization Direct Action Everywhere.
And this is amazing to watch.
And it's kind of like the cherry on top in these last few days of 20/20 of what has been
a completely humiliating year for Maria Bartiromo Brownnosing.
Donald Trump endlessly claiming without evidence or vetting last week that a so-called intel
source assured her Trump really did win the 2020 election, doing pathetic softball interview
after softball interview with Donald Trump.
So anyway, let's get to this interview supposedly with pork CEO Dennis Oregon, actually an activist
named Matt Johnson.
The topic is vaccines for food workers.
Another group pushing to get the vaccine early food workers plants across the U.S. from major
outbreaks early in the pandemic.
Joining me right now is the CEO of Smithfield Foods, Dennis Organ.
Dennis, it's great to have you this morning.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Can you tell us where you are in terms of that rash of coronavirus cases that hit your
South Dakota operation?
Well, merry Christmas, Maria, thank you so much for having me on.
I mean, it's certainly been been a challenging time and we have our workers that are, you
know, in desperate need of these vaccinations.
And as you mentioned, we're heartened to hear that the CDC is prioritizing America's food
workers with the second round of vaccinations.
It's 30 million vaccine doses that are going out to essential frontline employees out of
the eighty seven million total.
And, of course, this pandemic has been simply devastating for our industry, thousands of
our really courageous food workers.
And I really do want to emphasize the heroic efforts of these folks.
They've been getting sick for really just trying to provide for their families.
And as far as Smithfield, you know, what we've done for our employees.
We've provided them with extensive personal protective equipment and offered additional
paid leave for for sick employees.
But the steps have have unfortunately been insufficient in many instances.
These folks have been through a lot.
Frankly, we might bear some responsibility for that.
But we know that our Smithfield family is is dedicated.
So it starts pretty buttoned up.
But then he starts with you know, we probably bear some responsibility for food workers
catching covid and it starts to slowly get wackier.
And it's not clear Maria Bartiromo realizes it right away and resilient and the better
times are ahead.
And if I may add quickly, as as the new CEO and president of Smithfield, I personally
promise that we're going to do better.
And the first change under my leadership is, is transparency and at times brutal honesty.
And and the truth is that bit our industry, in addition to the outbreaks that are happening
at our plants, our industry poses a serious threat and effectively bringing on the next
pandemic.
What CDC data showing that three of four infectious diseases come from from animals and the conditions
inside of it inside of our farms can sometimes be petri dishes for four new diseases.
Hog farming also causes immense harm to our air and waterways.
So now he goes into bullet points about how terrible animal agriculture is and how it
contributes to pollution and to carbon emissions.
And it's obviously not what a pork CEO would ever say.
And I can't tell, but maybe Maria's starting to think something is up here and there's
more.
And Maria seems so eager to talk about how Smithfield Farms was bought by a Chinese conglomerate
that she almost seems not to notice.
But then Matt Johnson starts bringing up more animal borne diseases and it starts to become
almost satirical.
And then he starts talking about a five hundred five hundred million dollar donation.
Take a listen.
Dennis, what I want to ask you about, that's what I want to ask you about, Dennis, because
Smithfield Foods is the world's largest pork producer.
You are in an incredible, you know, an incredible spot to have incredible impact in the United
States and across the world.
But China acquired Smithfield.
Your parent company is now based in Hong Kong.
Can you tell us how it works?
There was a post recently about the way your company operates.
Are the hogs raised in the United States and then sent to China to get slaughtered and
and produced and packaged.
Yeah, well well, Smithfield Foods is owned by a Chinese conglomerate and the pigs are
slaughtered in the US and and we have an export market, which we think is a very necessary
part of a thriving economy to have open trade.
There has been some leveling off of demand that we've seen in China.
There was an African swine fever outbreak that happened or a round of them really, where
there was greater demand and now they're holding.
Dennis, I was told that in China, you know, there was this African swine flu that affected
so many pigs that there were a million pigs in the river dead.
They didn't know where to where to get rid of the pigs that were dead.
And then other sources were saying, well, you know, you can't get sick even if the pig
was had African swine flu, if the pig was dead.
So they they cut up the meat as well.
How are Americans going to believe that the meat is safe if they're going to China to
get slaughtered and packaged?
What kind of processing securities do you have in place to assure Americans that their
pork is safe?
Janice.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, so we we have extensive safety protocols in place for our
essential frontline employees from from personal protective equipment that they wear to sanitation
of of all of our equipment in our facilities.
And I mean, I think that that our company's track record really speaks for itself in that
regard.
But I mean, in terms of the impact that we've that this industry has on the world, we really
want to to to kind of embrace a brighter future and and with.
And with some of the impacts that our industry has is is having we're actually pledging now
a half a billion dollars a year, starting in twenty, twenty one to try to mitigate some
of these impacts, because what's happening in China and what's happening elsewhere, there's
a lot of concerns a lot of people are worried about.
Hilariously, Maria Bartiromo, almost knowingly, is almost unknowingly is indicting Smithfield
as much as the fake CEO is.
But his mention of pledging half a billion dollars, 500 million to fighting the very
problems his company creates is just brilliant.
And then they ended up finding out after the fact that this was completely bogus.
And Maria Bartiromo found out it was a fake CEO and she apologized.
We have an important correction to make.
It appears we have been punkt.
Earlier in the program, I interviewed someone calling claiming to be the CEO of Smithfield
Foods Dennis Organ.
We've since learned that that was not Dennis organ, but an impostor making false claims
about the company.
He is someone who has absolutely no relation to Smithfield Foods.
We want to apologize to Dennis Organs, Smithfield Foods and to our audience for making this
mistake.
We will, of course, be more vigilant.
It is just wild.
And this is a great opportunity to play a clip that many may not know about.
I would be doing you a disservice if I didn't take this opportunity to play a clip of when
Max Rice, who's been a guest on this show, Max Rice, pretended back in 2012 to be a former
Obama voters so disillusioned with Obama that he was voting Mitt Romney in 2012 and he pranked
then Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson on Fox News.
I would argue it was better than yesterday's Smithfield prank.
Take a look.
And apologies for the poor video quality to the Romney Ryan ticket.
Joining me now is a recent college grad, Max Rice.
He voted for President Obama.
Now he's unemployed and just moved out of his parents home.
Good morning to you, Max.
Well, hello, Miss Miss USA.
It's an honor, Miss America.
Wish I can see the closeness.
America is universe in my book and my book.
Oh, OK.
Well, thank you very much.
Now, tell me your story.
You believed in the hope and change of President Obama, and so you voted for him.
And tell me about the next four years of Obama supporter in 2008.
I met him in third grade.
And when I was little.
OK, and why now are you supporting me?
What's your question?
Why now?
Are you supporting Mitt Romney?
I'm not supporting Mitt Romney.
It's actually a funny story.
I lost a basketball game to a friend of mine.
Alex is a huge supporter of the show.
OK, so it sounds like you're not being very smart, I'm also I'm also disappointed in the
direction that Obama is taking this nation, but we cast my ballot for Mitt Romney.
OK, and true that you had to go back and live with your parents after you graduated from
college.
Oh, yes.
I went to college for a bit to go back with my parents this summer.
I'm back on my own independent.
I'm on national TV.
I feel like I'm doing good.
It's an honor.
OK, well, are you being serious about this interview or not?
Yeah.
OK, I see your face right now.
This is so weird.
All right.
Well, actually, we're going to wrap this up now because I'm not so sure that you're actually
are totally serious about.
I am.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Why not?
Yeah, I'm not sure I'm not sure that you're ready for primetime yet with this, and I'm
not ready for primetime.
I mean, this is I mean, all right, we're going to give Max another chance, maybe when he's
ready.
So that's really the standard by which all of these must be judged.
And Max Rice back in 2012 on Fox News was an absolute classic.
Maria Bartiromo.
Yes, humiliating herself with the fake pork CEO, but doing it in marginally less dramatic
fashion than what happened with Gretchen Carlson back in 2012.
But nicely done by Matt Johnson