Posted on 12/11/2001 5:26:26 PM PST by blackdog
Here is today's fashion update that Geraldo has on display.
The blue bandana has been discarded in favor of the rust brown bandana. It is being worn in ascot fashion. A new twist on Geraldo's theme has been boldly launched on the viewing audience. The New England Fisherman look is portrayed in the backdrop of some Afghan river which makes the whole thing look like a seen from Jaws. His blue wool fishermans cap tightly hugged his head. Of course the cap was only an accessory which matched his blue merchant marine pea coat with nautical buttons. Matching gloves must be a rarity in Afghanistan since he was wearing black OJ type driving gloves which definately clashed.
Accompanying today's fashion clip for the "hip" war correspondent were some cave cut-aways showing his Aussie outfit worn yesterday. Geraldo must be lurking Free Republic with a lap-top. The criticism of the blue bandana worn for two weeks straight was taken to heart and the rust bandana is definately a hygenic improvement, but it also clashed with the blue nautical theme of today. It has been leaked by reliable sources that he has decided on a lion tamers outfit complete with whip when they catch OBL and put him in a cage.
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Rosetta, are you afraid that all those admiring, giggling interns in his enturage might kill him? Together with 20 (twenty) porters that he admitted having to carry his bandanas --- oh, sorry --- cloths?
It is a dangerous job but Geraldo is surely cut for it.
Tuesday December 11 5:58 PM ETRivera Sparks Debate About War Role
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) - From his perch near Tora Bora, Afghanistan (news - web sites), Fox News Channel correspondent Geraldo Rivera seemed more agitated by a question about carrying a gun than by the mortar rounds that just exploded nearby.
``I refuse to address that issue,'' said Rivera, speaking into a satellite phone. ``It's been blown way out of proportion. It makes me sound like a tabloid talk show host goes to war. It's so unfair.''
Yet Rivera's decision to bring a gun into a war zone where eight journalists have been killed has raised questions about whether it's a proper - or wise - thing for a reporter to do.
Many reporters say that carrying a gun is risky because soldiers would be less likely to believe a claim that someone is a journalist, making them potential targets.
``If the word gets out that a journalist is carrying a gun, it makes it difficult for everyone,'' said Peter Arnett, a former war correspondent for The Associated Press and CNN.
Rivera, speaking on Fox News Channel last week, said that ``if they're going to get us, it's going to be in a gunfight.'' But when asked specifically by an anchor whether he had a gun, he was reluctant to talk about it, finally nodding yes.
He's traveling with two guards who have five guns between them, Fox spokesman Robert Zimmerman said. Rivera isn't necessarily carrying a gun in most situations, but has one readily available, he said.
While filming a report last week, Rivera ducked after a sniper fired a few shots in his direction.
``There are eight journalists already dead,'' he said. ``I almost got killed last Thursday and, believe me, it wasn't because of a story in the New York Post that I was carrying a gun. This is a very dangerous place.
``That makes me feel ill, that suddenly it's become an issue that I'm putting journalists at risk,'' he said. ``That's complete bull.''
NBC forbids its correspondents from carrying firearms. ABC won't discuss its security arrangements. CBS and CNN said none of their personnel carries weapons, but it isn't a formal policy.
Steve Bell, a telecommunications professor at Ball State University who covered Vietnam for ABC News, doubts he'd be alive today if he were carrying a gun when captured by Viet Cong soldiers in Cambodia in 1970.
He sat in a car while his Vietnamese co-workers convinced the soldiers that Bell was a journalist, not a CIA (news - web sites) agent.
``If I had been carrying a weapon, I doubt if that argument would have gone over well,'' Bell said.
Former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite, who covered World War II for United Press International, said all journalists he knew then adhered to Geneva Convention rules that they should not carry weapons.
Novelist Ernest Hemingway, who covered World War II as a reporter, angered fellow journalists in August 1944 when he joined a band of French resistance fighters. They were concerned about him blurring lines between journalists and soldiers.
Hemingway kept firearms, bazookas and grenades in his hotel in Paris, leading to an appearance before a military panel on allegations he was violating Geneva Convention rules concerning news correspondents. He claimed the weapons were in his room only because the military lacked storage space.
Carrying a gun could make soldiers ``look at reporters, particularly American reporters, as some kind of opponent,'' said Arnett, who is heading to Afghanistan soon as a correspondent for an independent production company. ``The whole point of being a journalist is to be detached.''
Arnett said he hoped Rivera is trained in using a weapon. ``I wouldn't want to be near him if he opened up,'' he said.
As a young reporter in Vietnam, Arnett admitted to occasionally carrying a weapon before he was convinced it was unwise. He hasn't since, he said.
Even if the journalists themselves are not armed, many news organizations - including The Associated Press - have hired armed guards for their personnel in particularly dangerous areas of Afghanistan. Expensive news equipment is considered tempting to thieves.
``I can understand wanting to have a bodyguard,'' said Alex Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. ``I think I would prefer to have someone with experience both locally and experience in their kind of battlegrounds and keep my focus on doing my job.''
But Jones said he wouldn't criticize a reporter who feels safer armed.
``I can understand both sides of the argument,'' Jones said. ``What I can't understand is if you're carrying a gun and talking about it.''
Rivera and Fox News Channel have both been outspoken in support of the U.S. war effort. Rivera, who left his CNBC talk show because he wanted to cover the war, has talked about killing Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) if he had the opportunity.
He's less willing to talk about his own personal security.
``I haven't had a shower in two weeks and I have to defend whether I'm carrying a six-shooter?'' he said. ``It's just ridiculous.''
Could it really be "Geraldo Fishing Update"?
Neither will I. Why, because the background shown on the Calamity at Homes Show was, as I pointed out yesterday, a heavy canvas sheet with a painted landscape. (They did a great job, an artist friend assured me!) That first bomb cloud you saw there in the sky never moved an inch, and the second one he was announcing never appeared! How is that for proof?!
The show is being filmed on the lot of 20th Century Fox Studios ('FOX', get it?) in Burbank, California. Some of the "mujahadeens" on the set are professional movie extras recognizeable from other movies (previously seen in movies with a lot of Italian looking guys.) In fact, this evening the producers must have realized that these guys are recognizeable and had them cover their bodies and faces with blankets. (On the other hand, I could be wrong, it's been a cold week in California.)
Ah, the daily meeting of the HeralDUH Fan Club.
Confidential to Fox - before you fire Geraldo, think abou this: Balanced news does not mean hiring an idiot to give balance to a good team.
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