Columbia College Student PWNS Fox & Friends Host

By Chuck Sudo in News on Sep 18, 2012 7:40PM

A Columbia College Chicago student made headlines Monday after an appearance on Fox News where he pretended to be a "disgruntled former Obama supporter."

Max Rice was booked for the network's morning program Fox & Friends with interchangeable attractive blonde host (and former Miss America) Gretchen Carlson. You could see where this segment was going from the moment Rice said "'Sup."

It wasn't a funny segment, but then it wasn't supposed to be. Rice told Talking Points Memo he did the segment to highlight the vortex of horse crap (apologies to Bob Brenly) that cable news networks, particularly Fox News, can be.

Rice said he was interested in exposing the lack of fact checking at the "fair and balanced" network.

“I gave them no straight answers,” Rice said. “Every time they called, it would be from an unknown number. I’d be like, ‘Yeah, I got my English degree from Texas.’ Then the next time, ‘Yeah, I’m in engineering.’” Rice told TPM he transferred from the University of Texas at Austin last spring and began taking classes at Columbia this summer.

Rice said two of his friends were also considered for an interview, but neither was as interested in pursuing the opportunity. One communicated with a Fox News employee by impersonating a character on “Family Guy,” which immediately disqualified him.

It wasn’t until a week ago that Rice learned which Fox program would be the stage for his prank. He had no qualms with the early morning venue.

“I was like, ‘No fucking way!’” Rice recalled. “‘Fox & Friends,’ that’s my favorite show.”

And the rest was history. (We can only wonder how long it would have taken Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy to figure out he was being pranked.)

As for fact-checking, TPM did a basic YouTube search for "Max Rice" and turned up this video. (Rice confirmed this is him in the video.)

Pranks on cable news channels are nothing new: we're fans of the legendary Captain Janks. Rice's moment of glory is only the latest in an ongoing litany of low points for live cable news.