Posted on 11/16/2001 1:25:02 PM PST by JIM O
Geraldo in the No Spin Zone
Friday, November 16, 2001
This is a partial transcript from The O'Reilly Factor, November 15, 2001.
BILL O'REILLY, HOST: In the second Personal Story segment tonight, brand new Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera. We're sending him to Afghanistan, along with his brother, producer Craig Rivera. Geraldo joins us now.
You know, we got a lot of nasty letters when they -- it was announced that you were hired over here.
GERALD RIVERA, FOX WAR CORRESPONDENT: No love letters?
O'REILLY: We got a couple, but the bad outweighed the good. Why do you think that is?
RIVERA: Well, I think the -- there's a general perception that your viewers are more conservative certainly than I am perceived to be, and I'm sure they're still ticked off at me over the Bill Clinton impeachment saga.
O'REILLY: What was that all about? Why did you defend him so voraciously?
RIVERA: Well, I thought that it was a huge national distraction going after a guy who lied about getting oral sex from a woman he wasn't married to, and I think I know a million guys who had oral sex from a woman they weren't married to, and to impeach the president over that just didn't seem appropriate.
O'REILLY: Why didn't you connect the dots to the undermining of the justice system, lying under oath, because you're a lawyer. I mean, you could have done that pretty easily.
RIVERA: My whole feeling about that era is we should be in the post-ideological phase now. During wartime, I think to be right, left, to talk about missteps, or...
O'REILLY: Well, let me tell you why that's relevant. It hurt you. It hurt you. Your ratings went down after that. It hurt you.
RIVERA: I'm the number one rated show at CNBC.
O'REILLY: Yeah. That's like being the...
(LAUGHTER)
O'REILLY: All right. I like CNBC, and I'm not going to denigrate them, and we enjoyed watching your program, but we were competing with you, and we saw your ratings slide, and every...
RIVERA: You mean the immediate post-impeachment?
O'REILLY: Yeah. After you -- after your emotional defense of Bill Clinton, we could see the graph on your show going down, and every time you brought on Alan Dershowitz, we applauded. We said, "Yeah. Bring him on," because Americans despise him so much that we thought it was hurting you, and we could never figure out why you would continue to bring him on.
RIVERA: He's a very articulate person.
O'REILLY: That's true.
RIVERA: He -- you know, he advocates for his philosophical point with great eloquence and energy. And you might not like him. A lot of people don't like Reverend Sharpton either, but there are plenty of people on the right that generate the same...
O'REILLY: Yeah, sure. I don't mind bringing these people on, but do you want to bring them on as often as you did, knowing that the general viewer finds him so distasteful that he might turn the channel to The O'Reilly Factor or whatever?
RIVERA: You're on the hour before me.
O'REILLY: No, I know that, but you know what I'm talking about.
RIVERA: I do, but I really do believe that all of us have a shared guilt right now, and the shared guilt is, for the last 10 years, we have been horribly distracted.
I would bet you that I can find you 4,000, 5,000 FBI agents who wished to God they weren't assigned to Whitewater, Monicagate, Bill Clinton, that instead they were on the trail of Usama bin Laden and the people who were plotting mass murder against us.
O'REILLY: All right, but then the...
RIVERA: I think it's time now to say... O'REILLY: I think there's some validity to the...
RIVERA: ... "Now let's all move forward, let's all be in this together, let's back our president, and let's win this war."
O'REILLY: Right, but for your -- I think for you to -- and I'm -- forgive me for being impertinent.
(LAUGHTER)
O'REILLY: No. Really. I don't want to be disrespectful. I really don't. But for you to rehabilitate your image for the Fox News audience, I think that we...
RIVERA: But why would you consider it so mean-spirited? Why would you consider it so insincerely? It's...
O'REILLY: I'm not. I'm trying not to be.
RIVERA: September 11th was an epic event. It was a disaster.
O'REILLY: Well, let me make another -- let me make another connection to...
RIVERA: Well, let me finish...
O'REILLY: I know where you're going with us, but let me present it.
RIVERA: Let me say it then.
O'REILLY: Bill Clinton, in the eyes of many of us, was an irresponsible man, and not only for the Lewinsky, but a lot of...
RIVERA: Wonderful. Wonderful. You're entitled to your constitutionally protected opinion.
O'REILLY: Right, right. And not only is it my opinion, but I can back it up with facts. We had plenty of warnings. We had the embassy bombings in Africa. We had the attack on the USS Cole, and what --
And I think you know this. The decision that was basically made at the White House level was, "We know Usama bin Laden is a threat to our country. We know he's behind these attacks on the United States," because testimony in the courts said that, "but the economy is going so well and the polls are so good for us that we're not going to disrupt our winning streak here to go into Afghanistan," or wherever he was, the Sudan at one time, Saudi Arabia, "and get him."
That was a calculation made by the White House. So I don't know if it's throwing off into the FBI was distracted by Monica Lewinsky, other than Bill Clinton was a guy...
RIVERA: Bill Clinton was...
(CROSSTALK)
RIVERA: ... Monica Lewinsky as well. I don't think...
O'REILLY: Yeah, but he was looking out for himself.
RIVERA: I don't think you can attribute -- why is it that people on one side of the spectrum are all nobly motivated and people on the other side of the spectrum are all sleazebags. I don't -- I don't...
O'REILLY: I think very few of them are nobly motivated.
RIVERA: I don't see the world that way. I see the world now -- why did I leave millions of dollars on the table at NBC? I did it because I had gone through a personal catharsis. You have to cut people some slack, especially when there's something -- an emergency as profound as this one.
I lost 70 neighbors from my little New Jersey neighborhood. My kids lost 15 parents in their little elementary school alone. Fifteen parents. Imagine that. In their little school.
O'REILLY: Not kidding because almost the same thing happened in my neighborhood.
RIVERA: And now we -- now we have to move forward.
O'REILLY: All right.
RIVERA: Now we have to...
O'REILLY: We're moving, Geraldo.
RIVERA: We have a threat against our very civilization. O'REILLY: We're moving. We're moving. What can you bring...
RIVERA: We have to -- you and I have to be partners, Bill.
O'REILLY: But we are. We're going to be partners.
RIVERA: We have to...
O'REILLY: You're here. I'm going to use you on The Factor.
RIVERA: We have to march together. We have to beat this...
O'REILLY: But I'm trying to -- I'm trying to let the audience see who you are so that they're not going to be angry when I put you on the air, OK, because there's a residual anger against Geraldo Rivera. It's a fact.
RIVERA: But, you know, it's a free country. Let them feel the anger.
O'REILLY: No, but I would...
RIVERA: Feel the anger. Feel the love.
O'REILLY: I would rather have your reporting not be tainted by that. Now let me ask you this. What would your reaction be...
RIVERA: Who said my reporting was tainted? I won the Kennedy Award last year for the...
O'REILLY: Your reporting isn't tainted. The reporting will be fine, I'm sure. You wouldn't have been hired. We know how -- what you can do here. It's the perception of you. I don't want you to get in the way of the story, you see?
Here's my last question. What are you going to bring to the Afghan situation? You leave Saturday, OK. You're going to go over there. We have people over there. So does everybody else. What are you going to bring to it?
RIVERA: I would never denigrate the people you have over there. You have fine reporters over there. Excellent. And they have energy and courage.
I think the only extra thing I bring, the only dimension I add is my experience, you know. There aren't many who have been to that region before. I have. There aren't many who have been to as many, you know, battlefields as I have. Kosovo. Colombia just this past summer. The Amazon Jungle. The drug war going on there.
O'REILLY: And you have contacts with the Northern Alliance, right?
RIVERA: And we've been in deep contact with them, and I really do hope that I am there when they bring this guy down from the mountains, shackled or dead, I don't really care...
O'REILLY: Well, you want to get him, too? You want to pummel him, right?
RIVERA: Well, I...
O'REILLY: That would be a little reporter involvement.
RIVERA: But what a joyous way to end a career, you know? A...
O'REILLY: Go out with a blaze of glory.
RIVERA: That's right.
O'REILLY: All right. Well, we wish you the best. Be careful.
RIVERA: I know you do. I know you do.
O'REILLY: The three guys that got killed over there on the tank -- I mean, you know, you've got -- you know that. I mean, you've been there. I've been there. We know that. And we hope you --
Look, you're welcome any time on The Factor. I'm going -- you know I'm going to give you a hard time sometimes, but you're welcome anytime...Geraldo Rivera working for the Fox News Channel. We got them all here. <
GRRRRRollin'
Memo to whorealdo: You DO get in the way of the story. I, for one, WILL NOT watch ONE report that you do.
Memo to O'Reilly: I PROMISE to change the channel whenever you bring whorealdo on - to your fiercest competitor.
RIVERA: I'm the number one rated show at CNBC.
O'REILLY: Yeah. That's like being the...
Ouch! That hurt!
Bill, please pass Geraldo the ice.
Re: Geraldo--He admitted going through a personal catharsis.
He is an excellent reporter with lots of connections.
Give him a chance.
Notice the 'Let's move along' RATS mantra.
The guy is a Clinton lover and refuses to face the truth about previous terrorist attacks on our country - just like his pal Hillbilly did.
On the other hand, Bill O'Reilly is sure getting to be a pompous a$$ in my opinion.
When I want to hear someone with guts enough to go for the truth - I am able to overlook the presentation.
Thats it lets move on...forget my poor judgement,and that I think selling secrets is all about sex..I close my eyes to treason...but you can trust MY judgement and reports from the field..so lets just move on!!
Whorledo is a liar..his judgement stinks..my TV goes off when he comes on..
Geraldo used to be a lot of things but when Clinton became President he showed his true alligence and when the scandals hit, Geraldo decided to throw away any pretense at objectivity and went to the mat defending Clinton. He's proud of that stand but now, we're supposed to all move on and forget all that while Geraldo dazzles us with his reportage from the 'front lines'. No way. Geraldo made a choice to be a fierce Clinton partisan and defender and he brings that baggage with him to FOX. I hope his broadcasts tank - big time.
On the other hand, Bill O'Reilly is sure getting to be a pompous a$$ in my opinion.
Why is O'Reilly a pompous ass?
He conducts an opinion show and presents his opinions forcefully, usually asking his guests; "Am I wrong"?
I don't see this 'pomposity' I keep reading about. O'Reilly believes he's right in his opinions, just as you and I believe we're right in ours. Others can disagree and many guests do disagree with O'Reilly and his final word is simply; "We'll let the viewers decide". That's fair. Having convictions isn't the same as pomposity.
Also I wish he would tone down the book sale pitch a little.
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