[quote]A couple of days after Fox News hired Geraldo Rivera away from CNBC to be its hunter-gatherer in Afghanistan, a friend of mine, a media personality, made a counterintuitive prediction. Dismissing my conviction, shared by every sentient being in Christendom, that Mr. Rivera would prove to be an embarrassment to his new employers, she said: "He'll turn out to do fabulous work in Afghanistan. Here are the reasons: It's his last chance to be taken seriously. He becomes excited by war. Because of his dark good looks, and his vaguely Tajik mustache, some idiot fighters there will think he's more sympathetic than the paler correspondents. And on top of all that he'll do anything - anything - to show Roger Ailes [the head of Fox News] his appreciation for this big chance. So, I say, watch that boy!"
I did watch him. She was wrong.
Mr. Rivera, who appears daily from the front line on Fox's news programs - popping up like a tawdry jack-in-the-box on "The O'Reilly Factor," "Hannity & Colmes" and every other news segment, it seems, morning, noon and night - has turned the war zone into a vast shrine to himself...<hr></blockquote>
And from the old stories made new again department, here's a "news" flashback. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
[quote]HARLEM - Ex-president Bill Clinton was resting comfortably in a local hospital late last night after emergency surgery to remove talk show host Geraldo Rivera's head from inside the former president's ass.
Clinton was brought to the hospital complaining of severe abdominal cramping and crippling constipation. A quick examination led doctors to recommend the immediate removal of Mr. Rivera and in order to end the pain, a reluctant Mr. Clinton acquiesced. Unfortunately, both Mr. Clinton and Mr. Rivera are expected to make full recoveries. <hr></blockquote>
And the comment about the "shrine to himself" is SO accurate. I watch Rivera's reports almost nightly, while flipping around back and forth during O'Reilly and Hannity & Colmes and he just has this way of making himself seem like the focus...and NOT the explosions and chaos taking place over his shoulder.
EVERYTHING is "I" or "me" and every phrase is so overblown and pumped-up with self-important, "he man" grandstanding.
Idiot.
I'll ask again...is there not anyway our boys could "accidentally" wing him just a bit? Enough to send him home and shut him up? A small, superficial shoulder wound or something?
Well, he must figure this is his last chance to make up for the Al Capone's Secret Vault fiasco. Now it's Osama Bin Laden's Secret Cave...the stupid fuk. I hope he DOES go into one of the militarized zones, gets captuared, and strung up by his testicles. <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
Biggest dumbass ever to be aired on TV short of Morton Downey Jr.
If this country wants some truly cutting edge commentary over there, send Hunter S. Thomson and a platoon of Seals in the back country...THAT would make good reading.
By the way, you guys who are arguing about Fox vs. CNN vs. the networks. It's POINTLESS. They're ALL screwed, but for different reasons.
Fox is the most sensationalist network on television. They over-hype everything and spin everything as if it's a matter of life and death. They suck the worst, plain and simple.
MSNBC suffers from the same disease although not to the same extent.
CNN is nothing but sound bites and meaningless statistical blurbs. They give little or no context and focus only on those stories that carry good footage with them (usually).
ABC is the best of the three networks (at least during the month following the WTC attack, I don't know about since then). They are somewhat liberal leaning, however their commentators and specialists are much more knowledgeable and impartial than the other networks. Peter Jennings, John Miller and John McQuethy put their counterparts on CBS and NBC to shame.
That said, the ONLY relatively unbiased news show, that WILL give you BOTH sides of the story IN SOME DEPTH, is the News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. Yes, it's boring, yes Jim looks like he needs a vacation. But if you want decent context-driven information, that's the only place you're likely to get it (on television anyway). To look elsewhere is to kid yourself.
And it's no coincidence that the only impartial news show that gives context, asks tough questions and gets the answer from multiple parties...is the one that doesn't depend on ratings. All network news shows are by definition Nielsen whores.
Carl Hiaasen wrote a really funny book (actually he has written several really funny books) called Skin Tight that has a dead-on parody of Geraldo Rivera. It's a great read.
The upshot: Geraldo made a bulls*** report about being at the site of the friendly fire incident in Afghanistan complete with phrases like "walking on hallowed ground" and "I said the Lord's Prayer."
Trouble is, he was hundreds of miles from the site. When he got called on it he backtracked and claimed he was at a different site where Alliance fighters were accidently killed.
But oops, that incident was days after his report.
[quote]Fox is the most sensationalist network on television. They over-hype everything and spin everything as if it's a matter of life and death. They suck the worst, plain and simple.
MSNBC suffers from the same disease although not to the same extent.<hr></blockquote>
I find it hard to form an opinion of MSNBC. I never seem to find news on the network when I turn it on. It's all Headliners and Legends, or one of 50,000 magazine shows. September 11th seemed to be the only day when there was someone present in the news department.
It's not like CNBC, where they have a legitimate reason to stop showing business news during certain times of certain days (when the markets are closed) and they can get away with showing some excellent National Geographic Explorer eps.
Comments
<a href="http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/tvaradarajan/?id=95001577"; target="_blank">Geraldo's War</a>
When showbiz is news, ignorance prevails.
BY TUNKU VARADARAJAN
Monday, December 10, 2001 12:01 a.m. EST
[quote]A couple of days after Fox News hired Geraldo Rivera away from CNBC to be its hunter-gatherer in Afghanistan, a friend of mine, a media personality, made a counterintuitive prediction. Dismissing my conviction, shared by every sentient being in Christendom, that Mr. Rivera would prove to be an embarrassment to his new employers, she said: "He'll turn out to do fabulous work in Afghanistan. Here are the reasons: It's his last chance to be taken seriously. He becomes excited by war. Because of his dark good looks, and his vaguely Tajik mustache, some idiot fighters there will think he's more sympathetic than the paler correspondents. And on top of all that he'll do anything - anything - to show Roger Ailes [the head of Fox News] his appreciation for this big chance. So, I say, watch that boy!"
I did watch him. She was wrong.
Mr. Rivera, who appears daily from the front line on Fox's news programs - popping up like a tawdry jack-in-the-box on "The O'Reilly Factor," "Hannity & Colmes" and every other news segment, it seems, morning, noon and night - has turned the war zone into a vast shrine to himself...<hr></blockquote>
And from the old stories made new again department, here's a "news" flashback. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)
<a href="http://www.bsnn.net/Headline News/flashback.htm" target="_blank">This Just In: Bill Clinton resting comfortably after emergency surgery</a>
[quote]HARLEM - Ex-president Bill Clinton was resting comfortably in a local hospital late last night after emergency surgery to remove talk show host Geraldo Rivera's head from inside the former president's ass.
Clinton was brought to the hospital complaining of severe abdominal cramping and crippling constipation. A quick examination led doctors to recommend the immediate removal of Mr. Rivera and in order to end the pain, a reluctant Mr. Clinton acquiesced. Unfortunately, both Mr. Clinton and Mr. Rivera are expected to make full recoveries. <hr></blockquote>
[ 12-17-2001: Message edited by: roger_ramjet ]</p>
Now THAT'S funny...
And the comment about the "shrine to himself" is SO accurate. I watch Rivera's reports almost nightly, while flipping around back and forth during O'Reilly and Hannity & Colmes and he just has this way of making himself seem like the focus...and NOT the explosions and chaos taking place over his shoulder.
EVERYTHING is "I" or "me" and every phrase is so overblown and pumped-up with self-important, "he man" grandstanding.
Idiot.
I'll ask again...is there not anyway our boys could "accidentally" wing him just a bit? Enough to send him home and shut him up? A small, superficial shoulder wound or something?
[ 12-17-2001: Message edited by: pscates ]</p>
Biggest dumbass ever to be aired on TV short of Morton Downey Jr.
If this country wants some truly cutting edge commentary over there, send Hunter S. Thomson and a platoon of Seals in the back country...THAT would make good reading.
Fox is the most sensationalist network on television. They over-hype everything and spin everything as if it's a matter of life and death. They suck the worst, plain and simple.
MSNBC suffers from the same disease although not to the same extent.
CNN is nothing but sound bites and meaningless statistical blurbs. They give little or no context and focus only on those stories that carry good footage with them (usually).
ABC is the best of the three networks (at least during the month following the WTC attack, I don't know about since then). They are somewhat liberal leaning, however their commentators and specialists are much more knowledgeable and impartial than the other networks. Peter Jennings, John Miller and John McQuethy put their counterparts on CBS and NBC to shame.
That said, the ONLY relatively unbiased news show, that WILL give you BOTH sides of the story IN SOME DEPTH, is the News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. Yes, it's boring, yes Jim looks like he needs a vacation. But if you want decent context-driven information, that's the only place you're likely to get it (on television anyway). To look elsewhere is to kid yourself.
And it's no coincidence that the only impartial news show that gives context, asks tough questions and gets the answer from multiple parties...is the one that doesn't depend on ratings. All network news shows are by definition Nielsen whores.
[ 12-17-2001: Message edited by: Moogs ? ]</p>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0449219410/qid=1009220199/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_74_1/107-4950742-6982123"; target="_blank">Skin Tight on Amazon.com</a>
The upshot: Geraldo made a bulls*** report about being at the site of the friendly fire incident in Afghanistan complete with phrases like "walking on hallowed ground" and "I said the Lord's Prayer."
Trouble is, he was hundreds of miles from the site. When he got called on it he backtracked and claimed he was at a different site where Alliance fighters were accidently killed.
But oops, that incident was days after his report.
What an ass!
Jeff
MSNBC suffers from the same disease although not to the same extent.<hr></blockquote>
I find it hard to form an opinion of MSNBC. I never seem to find news on the network when I turn it on. It's all Headliners and Legends, or one of 50,000 magazine shows. September 11th seemed to be the only day when there was someone present in the news department.
It's not like CNBC, where they have a legitimate reason to stop showing business news during certain times of certain days (when the markets are closed) and they can get away with showing some excellent National Geographic Explorer eps.