Geraldo Rivera: An Idiocy Retrospective

[ceo_esq]

By now we're all familiar with Geraldo's latest gaffe (http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/01/sprj.irq.geraldo/index.html) (and his disgraceful follow-through), which has already been discussed elsewhere in the forum. I thought the time was ripe for a fond look back at the many fatuities, cock-ups and narcissistic displays with which Geraldo has graced us over the years.

Geraldo's performance as a war correspondent in Afghanistan made Business 2.0's list of "The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business" (http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,38604%7C10,00.html):Geraldo Rivera informs viewers that he has visited the site of a friendly-fire incident in which three American soldiers were killed. "I said the Lord's Prayer and really choked up," Rivera says. When a critic for the Baltimore Sun later points out that Rivera was, in fact, more than 100 miles away from the site of the incident, Rivera claims he was actually at the site of a different friendly-fire incident, one that has escaped the attention of the military or any other journalistic source. "This cannot stand," Rivera adds. "He has impugned my honor. It is as if he slapped me in the face and challenged me to a duel."
I also remember when Geraldo, referring to the drowning death of actress Natalie Wood, told his talk-show audience "If you think it was an accident, applaud."

Help me out here. Can anyone else remember other examples of Geraldo's finest moments?

[swellman]

Who can forget his many sober review of Satanic Ritual Abuse?

[Mike B.]

What about opening Al Capone's vault?
:D

[Lurker]

After Geraldo compromised troop security by showing where his unit was and where it intended on going Geraldo got some flack from other news sources which said the army asked him to leave Iraq.

Why just yesterday Geraldo said on FOX, "A lot of the newspapers and TV outlets back in the states have some explaining to do to their readers and viewers because, as you can see, I’m still here and I plan to be here until I have a beer with the 101st Airborne in Baghdad."

Today, Geraldo is "voluntarily" leaving Iraq. Yeah, right. What a weasal. And I could not find ANY info on this on FoxNews's website. I bet if it had been a CNN reporter FOxNews would have been all over it.

Ah, the smell of hypocracy in the afternoon.

Lurker

[Jedi Knight]

Originally posted by ceo_esq
By now we're all familiar with Geraldo's latest gaffe (http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/01/sprj.irq.geraldo/index.html) (and his disgraceful follow-through), which has already been discussed elsewhere in the forum. I thought the time was ripe for a fond look back at the many fatuities, cock-ups and narcissistic displays with which Geraldo has graced us over the years.

Geraldo's performance as a war correspondent in Afghanistan made Business 2.0's list of "The 101 Dumbest Moments in Business" (http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,38604%7C10,00.html):
I also remember when Geraldo, referring to the drowning death of actress Natalie Wood, told his talk-show audience "If you think it was an accident, applaud."

Help me out here. Can anyone else remember other examples of Geraldo's finest moments?

One of the best Geraldo moments when when he had his talk show and brought some Nazis on there to debate some African Americans who wanted to confront them.

After about 2 minutes into the show, one of the white guys called one of the black guys an "Uncle Tom", and then the black guy got up and was going to attack the white guy.

Then Geraldo got between them and he was like "I was a boxer, yada yada yada". About two seconds after this skin-head guy runs from the audience onto the stage and clocks Geraldo and breaks his nose lol. Geraldo went down and then a gang brawl erupted and that was the end of the show.

I will never forget the look on Geraldo's face when that skin-head knocked him out.

Other than that, I think Geraldo is OK. He made a poor choice by giving the coordinates to the unit he was embedded in, but the guy has guts. When he was floating around the horn of Africa on a ship doing a report a bunch of Somali pirates almost killed him. The guy has courage, you have to give him that. He likes to fight too. He probably gave up the coordinates to the unit he was with so the enemy would attack and he would be able to gun some of them down lol. I like that in Geraldo. He would have been a good soldier.

JK

He probably gave up the coordinates to the unit he was with so the enemy would attack and he would be able to gun some of them down lol. I like that in Geraldo. He would have been a good soldier.

JK

WTF?? You like it in Geraldo that he would give away troop positions, thus putting the lives of troops at risk? This was a dumb motherfu**ing move, JK, and I can hardly believe you would endorse it in any manner, when you crucified Arnett for simply stating his opinion. JK, you ought to be ashamed of your bias.

[Richard G]

Geraldo doesn't give a rats ass about journalistic integrity. He's all about Geraldo. His big ego, and long winded grandstanding had me praying he would take a bullet in his big fat mouth when he was in Afghanistan.

[Andonyx]

Originally posted by Richard G
Geraldo doesn't give a rats ass about journalistic integrity. He's all about Geraldo. His big ego, and long winded grandstanding had me praying he would take a bullet in his big fat mouth when he was in Afghanistan.

Anyone else remember when he was busted in Afghanistan for carrying a fire-arm?

He "let-it-slip" that he was armed.

Of course he wasn't trying to hide it because his subtext was, "Look I carry a gun, and I'm in danger, look at me, look how brave I am!"

What he didn't mention was that by doing so he was endangering the safety of every other journalist in Afghanistan. Journalists operate under the presumed protection of a neutral party which means they DO NOT and SHOULD NOT be carrying weapons. Journalists have agreed to this clause since Vietnam.

By breaking that assumption he put himself and his crew in danger. He's an idiot, not a journalist.

[Jedi Knight]

Originally posted by Estimated Prophet


WTF?? You like it in Geraldo that he would give away troop positions, thus putting the lives of troops at risk? This was a dumb motherfu**ing move, JK, and I can hardly believe you would endorse it in any manner, when you crucified Arnett for simply stating his opinion. JK, you ought to be ashamed of your bias.

No, I didn't mean to say that giving the coordinates was a good thing, but part of Geraldo's nature. Geraldo has been around long enough for every segment of government to know where he was coming from. Just by letting Geraldo roll with them they should have expected that.

What they should have done was arm Geraldo and give him a flack-vest and unleashed him on the enemy lol.

JK

[Ian Osborne]

Originally posted by Jedi Knight
What they should have done was arm Geraldo and give him a flack-vest and unleashed him on the enemy lol.

I've eaten carrots with higher IQs than JK... :rolleyes:

[corplinx]

Once upon a time, there was a reporter named Geraldo. As he became more and more popular, he let his ego go to his head. HE slept with stars, went on a wild goose chase for hidden vaults, and then launched an awful daytime talk show. He became a mark for himself. And the networks let him. Years later he was shuffled to the back burner on one of the nbc cable news channels. Along came 9-11 and he wanted to get back into serious reporting. A man named Roger Ailes gave him a chance to redeem himself.

He was actually doing a good job in afghanistan, his reports were good albeit hammy. He knows how the world works and knew how to grease the right palms to make sure he stayed alive. One day he mentioned that he had visited a friendly fire location where out own had died. Unfortunately, it was a friendly fire location but only afghans had died there. The gaffe caused an uproar.

He returned home and had a new show called "at large with geraldo rivera". He revisited somalia, afghanistan, turkey, and did a fairly good job. Now he was in Iraq, and made another gaffe.

He's everyone's favorite whipping boy and has noone but himself to blame. I do think his work since getting hired by Ailes has been of good quality.

[corplinx]

Originally posted by Ian Osborne


I've eaten carrots with higher IQs than JK... :rolleyes:

I think he meant "to make up for giving away their position, they should have put him on the front lines".

Kinda funny if you think about it.

[Advocate]

Originally posted by Andonyx
Journalists operate under the presumed protection of a neutral party which means they DO NOT and SHOULD NOT be carrying weapons. Journalists have agreed to this clause since Vietnam.

Afghanistan was different than most wars in that there were multiple warlords and terrorist groups that did not respect the rules of war. Why should journalists expect to be safe under those conditions in any case? OTOH, bragging about carrying a gun was out of line.

Over the last few years my opinion of Geraldo had been slowly going up as he took on more serious duties, but this last episode of revealing US troop positions/movements went WAY over the line. IMHO Fox's actions regarding this were face saving and CYA more than anything. While I don't think this is quite the same as the Peter Arnett situation, I do consider what Geraldo did to be a possible danger to US troops and a perfectly good reason to get him out of theater so he can't do anything like that again.

[Smalso]

I don't see what all the fuss is about. What else is to be expected of someone who has, all his life, been influenced by the matriarchal totalitarianism of this society and who had to stoop to taking a job with the leftist, commie, America-hating, liberal media?

[Jedi Knight]

Originally posted by corplinx


I think he meant "to make up for giving away their position, they should have put him on the front lines".

Kinda funny if you think about it.

True, true. :D

JK

[Mike B.]

Ah yes a few years ago with Geraldo, it was all OJ all the friggin time...:p

[Frank Newgent]

I once had Geraldo Rivera as a passenger in my cab. It was the first time I ever heard his name said, actually. About 1978 in Madison, Wisconsin.

We had a two-cab order on campus going to the end of the airport where private flights left. I was the first cab there and I helped two passengers put some bags in the trunk. I remember feeling distinctly p*ssed at the guy who laughed at me and said: "Whatever you do, cabbie, don't get rear ended on the way to the airport."

Like I was about to become deliberately involved in a collision. What kind of dangerous payload this assh*le and his lawyer had put back there kind of distracted me from listening to the dispatcher for my next bid as they shouted a conversation I blocked from my mind.

The only reason it even stuck in my mind was how excited the other driver was when she roared up next to me once these
thimblewits finally got out. "Did you get his autograph, did you get his autograph?" she was shouting at me, waving her arms in the air. I thought she was cute. So I asked nicely who they were.

"Geraldo Rivera. Geraldo Rivera."

Must have been right after he was "Jerry."

The problem isn't Geraldo, it is the idiots who watch him, sending signals to the TV companies that people like that type of program.