Posted on 03/31/2003 10:38:52 AM PST by kattracks
Confusion over status of Geraldo Rivera in Iraq
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - Veteran reporter and former talk show host Geraldo Rivera, a correspondent for Fox News, was asked to be removed from Iraq by the U.S. military for reporting Western troop movements in the war, the Pentagon said on Monday.
But in a report from Iraq where he was about 60 miles (100 km) from Baghdad with the 101st Airborne Division, Rivera, known for his provocative on-screen style, said all was well and suggested he wasn't being ejected from the country by the U.S. military for coverage of the war.
Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman later told Reuters, however, that Fox News itself had agreed to remove Rivera after the military commander where Rivera was reporting felt that he had "compromised operational security."
A Fox spokesman said: "All I can tell you is that he's still reporting from Iraq."
Rivera said in his televised report that he did not know where the reports about the alleged security violations came from but accused colleagues, including former employer NBC, of perhaps "spreading some lies about me." He suggested all was well between him and the military.
"I'm further in the country than I have ever been," Geraldo said.
"If you were to ask me on whether or not he had reported on things that were of tactical value and compromised operational security, I would have to say yes. In the eyes of the commander on the ground, he did," Whitman told Reuters.
"I would say that he is going to be leaving Iraq," added Whitman. "Fox has talked to us and they have indicated to us that they are going to remove him from the area of operations."
Whitman, who had earlier said the military was ejecting Rivera, later amended that to Fox agreeing to withdraw the correspondent.
Reports from competing media said earlier that Rivera, a former talk show host and veteran correspondent who has also reported the war in Afghanistan and high-profile stories such as the O.J. Simpson murder trial, had been accused of violating rules against compromising operational security.
Whitman said Rivera was not officially "embedded," or assigned to the unit by the military, but was covering the troops at the time.
03/31/03 13:32 ET
Geraldo Rivera is denying reports that he's been kicked out of Iraq by U.S. military officials for giving out too much information about troop locations.
Meanwhile NBC fired journalist Peter Arnett on Monday, saying it was wrong for him to give an interview with state-run Iraqi TV in which he said the American-led coalition's initial plan for the war had failed because of Iraq's resistance.
Reporting on the Fox News Channel, Rivera said he's actually further inside Iraq than he'd been before.
He was standing alongside U.S. troops in a building he identified as Iraq's ruling party headquarters in a city south of Baghdad.
Rivera said it sounds like the rumors that he'd been kicked out were spread by people he described as "rats" at NBC, where he used to work.
He said his rivals "can't compete fair and square on the battlefield" - so they try to stab him in the back.
But in the end, he insists, "quality journalism wins out."
Rivera said he has a "great relationship" with the troops in the 101st Airborne - and that he plans to "march into Baghdad alongside them."
Sources at U.S. Central Command have said that Rivera was asked to leave because he revealed tactical information.
Arnett, on NBC's "Today" show on Monday, said he was sorry for his statement but added "I said over the weekend what we all know about the war."
"I want to apologize to the American people for clearly making a misjudgment," the New Zealand-born Arnett said. He said he would try to leave Baghdad now, joking "there's a small island in the South Pacific that I've inhabited that I'll try to swim to."
© 2003 The Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60058-2003Mar31.html
dep
I litterally choked on my coffee this morning when he started drawing the map in the sand. It's not every day that I start off the morning yelling expletives at the tv. I don't think that he meant to do any harm, but at best this was a SERIOUS f***-up on his part. I'm surprised that no one back in New York pulled the plug on him as he was drawing out the map. If I were running the control room, he would have gone to a test patternas soon as he picked up the stick.
This may be the crux of the problem:
Whitman said Rivera was not officially "embedded," or assigned to the unit by the military, but was covering the troops at the time.
I was wondering about Whoraldo's status, thinking it odd that they put him in Afghanistan instead of Iraq when the war began. This confirms the fact that he's not embedded. Did the military do Fox a favor by letting him hook up with the troops? Did they decide after last night's broadcast that he's a liability? Can they, technically, throw him out of Iraq if he's not embedded? They can certainly ban him from access to the troops in the field, but I wonder if they can throw him out of the country? Is the media trying to get him thrown out because the military has refused to let other non-embedded media hook up with the troops?
In spite of Whoraldo's "bravado" I doubt he'd stay in Iraq without the protection of the military.
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