I hesitated to cover this story because I knew a few faithful RedStaters would comment, “Who gives a flying fig what Geraldo Rivera has to say?” But to quote the old Fox News slogan, “We report, you decide.”
Now that Geraldo has been axed from the highly-rated show “The Five” and subsequently left Fox altogether, he’s taken to “The View” to share the dirty laundry behind his departure after 23 years at the network. He describes a toxic relationship with one of the members of “The Five”–although he won’t name names, he does reveal that it was with a male cast member, so it’s either Jesse Watters or Greg Gutfeld, both of whom he’s tangled with on-air.
I’m going with Gutfeld, but either bet is valid.
He also sadly laments that “his ideology does not fit Fox,” failing to notice that it was some of his own ludicrous takes that made him more suited to sit with Whoopi and the harpy gang than on the set of “The Five.”
But he saved his fiercest criticism for former top-rated host Tucker Carlson, whose influence he hopes to see wane after Carlson’s own firing from the network. Geraldo blasted Tucker for daring to air videos that blew up the Jan. 6 Committee’s narrative of “an insurrection”:
I think that [Carlson] is an excellent writer. I think that he was very charismatic in his presentation. He was number one for a reason…Then he drifted into this murky area, swampy area where these conspiracy theories, it’s not just January 6, a whole bunch of different, kinda of mucky conspiracies.
I don’t like to be unkind, but that what he did just, as I would never vote for Donald Trump, I will never forgive Tucker for what he did about January 6.
My guess is that neither Tucker nor Trump are interested in his “forgiveness.” Rivera is merely going along with his cohorts in the lamestream media who say that anyone who doesn’t think that a few hundred unarmed protesters were actually a serious threat to overthrow the most powerful government the world has ever seen is a QAnon white supremacist.
All Tucker did was show the actual footage and question whether the actions of the crowd truly represented a rebellion against America.
You only have to look at the recent revolt of the Wagner Group in Russia to know what an actual dangerous threat looks like.
Rivera seems to want to stay relevant on the D.C. cocktail circuit because he said of former president Donald Trump:
I am vowed to dedicate whatever energy I have left in this profession is to ensure he is not ever re-elected president ever. [He] incited a riot, he encouraged people to go there and ruin their lives.
But is Geraldo as vociferous on Biden, Inc. and what more and more appears to be the most corrupt administration in the history of our country? Not so much.
As to the toxic relationship he claims he endured on “The Five,” the normally macho mustachioed newsman sounded a bit like a snubbed schoolchild:
Today, Rivera provided more details, noting that a “toxic relationship” with one of The Five‘s co-hosts led to his firing, and that the discord had been getting increasingly personal. “I thought it was very unfair that in our disputes, he was always favored.” Rivera said his appearances on the show began to dwindle, sometimes being canceled on the day of airing.
He said Fox News offered to find him a spot on another show, but that he responded, If you fired me from the #1 show, then I’m going to quit.”
Asked by View co-host Sunny Hostin why Fox couldn’t have built a new show around him, Rivera said, “My ideology does not fit Fox. They always kind of squeezed me in.”
I don’t despise Rivera; he’s been a sometimes entertaining, hard-working newsman for decades. Though many will disagree, I thought he paid too high a price for his infamous opening of Al Capone’s vault on live television, which turned out to be an utter dud as the vault held nothing of interest. But that was in 1986, almost 40 years ago, and he was a young, aggressive journalist trying to make a name for himself.
There are plenty of more recent episodes that we can hit Rivera on, like the nude selfie he drunkenly posted to the internet in 2013.
Early in his career, though, he broke onto the scene by exposing horrific conditions at the Willowbrook Nursing Home on Staten Island. “As a result of its airing on WABC-TV, the manner of treating people with disabilities was forever changed,” notes New York’s ABC7.
But somewhere along the line, he lost the plot. The truth is–as Fox executives realized–he’s perfectly suited to keep the blinders on and hang with the nonsensical ladies of “The View” and not waste the time of the actual Americans who are paying attention. Once an interesting voice, he’s been relegated to the ranks of the unthinking liberal journalist hive mind.
And can somebody please get him a decent haircut?
See also:–>
Good-Bye and Good Riddance: Geraldo and ‘The Five’ Finally Part Ways
Greg Gutfeld Humiliates Geraldo Rivera Over Cheap Shot at Tucker Carlson