It's disturbing that an episode as serious as the Time Square terror attack is assigned to Geraldo Rivera to anchor. This is no Anna Nicole Smith or Tiger Woods' love life story, this is hard news of the highest level of gravity.
x
Having a tabloid, gonzo subjective "reporter" who processes everything from the egocentric standpoint compromises the seriousness and integrity of such a vital story. Geraldo's place is on a tabloid time of show like Entertainment Tonight or Inside Edition and his roll should be defined in the same sense as someone like Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity, not a serious hard news anchor.
x
Someone with a long standing reputation for injecting his personal perspectives, exaggerating stories for the sake of sensationalism, and clearly has some causes to lobby and axes to grind, does not belong in the setting of serious front line journalism. Imagine the questions viewers might have if this episode were tied in with some Hispanic movement that there can be no question Rivera covers in the spirit of blatant advocacy journalism.
x
If Fox seeks to be the nation's premier news organization, they must do much better than this. With Geraldo Rivera, it doesn't matter what the story is, Geraldo will milk it for every last drop of exploitative emotion and cheesy sentiment he can mine from it, and no matter what the subject is, it always somehow turns out to be all about Geraldo.
x
We challenge Fox News to assign legitimate highly professional journalists not tabloid entertainers to cover stories with such great gravity. They can continue to throw him outside during an oncoming hurricane just as must local stations have their designated stooge who always gets splashed with a wall of snow at some major intersection when there's a major snow. That's about the right level of exposure for Rivera, a punching bag for Mother Nature!
x
No comments:
Post a Comment