Vinson’s Variety: Geraldo — fired scud or stud?
With all due concern, consideration, and respect for the U.S. service members bravely fighting in Iraq, I also must say that, for me, there is one positive note to be had from that destructive conflict: the expulsion of high-profile, investigative reporter Geraldo Rivera from Iraq for “revealing tactical information and compromising national security.”
Of all the high-profile media sorts out there, Geraldo Rivera best epitomizes a metaphor I use to describe such grandiose, self-serving egotists: in so deep they no longer can see the surface. Harvard media analyst Alex Jones says the same thing, in essence: “One of the greatest misnomers in the world is so-called common sense. It should be called ‘rare sense’ when you see how much smart people can do stupid things.”
I heard one individual comment that, possibly, Geraldo was on drugs. Well, I’m not convinced that particular allegation is based on any credible evidence, but I will say Geraldo, along with many others like him, suffers from the strongest addiction known to mankind: the addiction to power, an addiction for which there is no known fix, one that turns the sufferer inside out, to the degree that you no longer can trust him/her.
Traveling with the 101st Airborne in Iraq — a courtesy extended to Rivera by U.S. command — cool cat Geraldo acted less than brilliantly when on live television he sketched a map in the sand that revealed his and the 101st Airborne’s location. A dee-jay for a major rock station stated on the air that Rivera should have been “shot” on site.
I won’t go that far, but he should be identified, and dealt with, for what he is. Indeed, there was a time, in years gone by, when such blatant, disregardful, public disclosure of sensitive material during a time of declared war could have landed a journalist in jail facing a charge of being a traitor. Again, that was in “years gone by,” not now.
In lieu of these allegations, Geraldo feebly is attempting to defend himself, saying his reported expulsion from Iraq is not true, and that some of his old cohorts from NBC are “stabbing” him in the back. What else do you expect him to say? When it’s all said and done, I’m confident we’ll see the great Geraldo on a prime time, television talk show claiming that the ultimate decision for him to leave Iraq – at least, him being divested of his status as a high-profile reporter in Iraq – was solely his, and his only. Yeah, right.
I fell out with Geraldo Rivera several years ago when I read his memoirs detailing his many claimed sexual conquests of the female gender. And it wasn’t so much his actual revelation of those intimate trysts; rather, it was the pompous way he went about laying claim to them. It convinced me that his own ego came first, and everything else second.
However, being the articulate, suave and debonair fellow that he is, I’m sure still there is some marquee-level work out there for Geraldo Rivera. With a broken nose inflicted on him on his own top-rated talk show, his infamous investigative special airing an essentially empty Al Capone vault, questionable stud status, and “fired in Iraq” gracing his r?sum?, how about a lead role in “Jackass: Part Two.”
(Mike Vinson is a Warren County columnist. His e-mail is [email protected].)