In case you missed it, a video posted in early October by ambush journalist Jason Mattera shows neighbors of Lois Lerner unwilling to let her in their home, even when she is pleading to get away from Mattera's camera.

In the video, Mattera finds Lerner out on a dog-walk in her posh neighborhood outside of Washington D.C. and begins asking for an apology from the disgraced bureaucrat for targeting conservative groups. She immediately flees to the protection of a neighbors home as Mattera continues the interrogation.

After a few knocks, the neighbor cracks the door and Lerner tries to force her way in, only to be stopped by the woman at the door who says to Lerner, "No, wait a minute! I have a broken -- I've had surgery. Can you wait?" The door closes and Lerner is never allowed inside.

"I really need to come in for one second," Lerner pleads.

Lerner keeps her back turned to Mattera as she waits at the door. Then, the man of the house approaches from the front yard and asks, "What are you doing here?" Lerner responds, "These guys are not leaving me alone. They're from the press, they're following me. I just want to go in your house for one second, please."

Irritated the man says, "What?" Mattera explains she wants to be inside his home. The man responds, "I don't want her in the house." "Out! Out!" the man exclaims, as he moves them off of his property.

Lerner bolts out of the yard and heads for another neighbor's home. As the video ends Mattera says, "Are we going to try another house?"

Mattera's tactics have been criticized by many, especially this one with Lerner, but they were recently defended in a Washington Free Beacon column by his friend, Stephen Gutowski. Gutowski describes being detained with Mattera on one such occasion of ambush journalism years earlier.

Even Gutowski was bothered by this encounter with Lerner, saying maybe Mattera should not have done it while she was out for a walk. (Normally he goes to government buildings and confronts the politicians.) But Gutowski had to admit that it was telling to see Lerner's neighbor deny her safe haven in their home.

Yet, as Gutowski explains, this type of journalism has been used for decades by TV reporters, such as Mike Wallace for example. He says just think of all the times reporters have turned up at local businesses that may be scamming customers or city officials who are accused of fraud and surprising them with questions. His column even includes a 1991 ABC undercover investigation using the same ambush tactics.

Gutowski writes about Mattera:

He wasn’t conducting some sort of needless intrusion into a private citizen’s life. He was doing a tough interview with an important public figure who didn’t want to answer the questions he was posing.

It’s something that goes on everyday across the country. TV journalists always loved doing it.

Mattera is using this, and other clips, to sell his new book, CRAPITALISM: Liberals Who Make Millions Swiping Your Tax Dollars.