I hate Geraldo Rivera. I know that's not the most groundbreaking statement ever uttered. I don't hate him because he's a smarmy nutjob who for some unknown reason still gets paid millions to perpetuate sensationalistic journalism. Well, ok, I do hate him for precisely this reason.
His utterly ridiculous report during the Virginia Tech shooting really highlighted Geraldo at his absolute worst. Just hours after the shooting, Geraldo decided to pay no attention to the facts and instead shifted the focus away from the victims of the tragedy over to the the most sensational angle he could find. I actually saw this clip live and was disgusted:
At the time I had no idea whether the Facebook profile he pulled up was indeed the actual shooter, but I knew that Geraldo himself had no idea either. In the days to come, the student's profile that Geraldo pulled up was proven not to have any link to the actual Virginia Tech shooter. The page belonged to another VT student, Wayne Chiang, who definitely has some personal issues of his own, but has handled the attention with surprising grace, stating in his blog:
Please remember: the real tragedy isn't the racist remarks going on, false accusations, ineffectiveness of the administration, or gun control rights. These things are superficial. This time period will be the darkest of Hokie history...
I want to further reiterate that there is no "tragedy" concerning me. Instead, we should turn our attention to those in need down at Virginia Tech.
The recklessness Geraldo showed by pushing this "news" story goes beyond anything like Don Imus' transgressions against the Rutgers women's basketball team. Yet Imus got canned, and Geraldo gets to continue reporting his idea of the facts. How is this acceptable?
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