Geraldo Rivera is marking 40 years in television. Photo credit: Fox News Channel
Geraldo Rivera’s 40-year career retrospective last night on Fox News Channel was edited in a memorably strange way.
A segment on the death penalty segued into a Rivera editorial on Casey Anthony, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee. The bit on Anthony played right before Rivera looked back at the Beatles. It was the night Casey opened for John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Rivera decried the death penalty because of a “largely imperfect system that sometimes places a higher priority on getting a conviction than on seeking the truth about whether or not someone actually committed the murder for which they are about to lose their life.”
Rivera said the ultimate punishment “is not appropriate for a selfish, sick, crazy mom who kills her kid, like Florida’s Casey Anthony. Trying to execute her is a political act, not justice.”
But that was all about Anthony. “Let’s lighten this up,” Rivera said. He turned to the Beatles and interviews with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and John Lennon. In new footage, Yoko Ono saluted Rivera as a good friend and highlighted his efforts to help the mentally disabled.
Rivera’s retrospective on “Geraldo at Large” — it repeats at 10 p.m. Sunday on Fox News Channel — reminded viewers of his roles as reporter, entertainer and showman. Which role does he enjoy most?
Geraldo has appeared in episodes of “Baywatch” (taking on David Hasselhoff), “Seinfeld” (the series finale), “The Sopranos” and “My Name Is Earl.” Rivera became the face of “Trash TV” — on a Newsweek cover — after his nose was broken on his talk show. And Rivera replayed his failure to find anything when opening Al Capone’s vault.
Rivera also used the retrospective to address a low point in his career: When he drew a line in the sand in Iraq in 2003, outraging many viewers. He ran afoul of military authorities and agreed to leave the country.
“While I took full responsibility for that line-in-the-sand fiasco, it was, ladies and gentlemen, totally overblown,” Rivera said. He said his competitors used far more sophisticated maps to indicate troop movements.
Rivera even pulled in Gen. David Petraeus who congratulated and thanked “the one and only Geraldo Rivera” for telling stories in “his uniquely Geraldo way.”
The retrospective was all about Rivera taking a bow, and he boasted that “my entire adult life has played out in public.” Last night was another chapter — one bewilderingly constructed — in the very public life of the one and only Geraldo.
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