Posted on 12/12/2001 12:48:32 PM PST by dhuffman@awod.com
NEW YORK (December 12, 2001 6:15 a.m. EST) - From his position near Tora Bora, Afghanistan, 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 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 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."
I have never really liked Geraldo and actually have had very little respect for him in the past. I have to say that I have gained a great respect for him lately.
I really takes a set of Ba**s to go where the fighting is, armed to the teeth or not. I don't know how many of you have been shot at but I have been, more than once too. I thank G*D that I wasn't hit but I can tell you that it will make you re-think you values very quickly.
If Geraldo wants to go armed then he does so without the protection of the Geneva convention and I suggest he knows this. In that land I would probably choose the same way or just not go there at all as they do not honor the Geneva convention. Think about this for a moment please.
These people have no reguard for human life or law as we know it. They have Islam and they go by it and they will kill women, children and armies at will if it please Allha. They will do this even if it means losing their own lives and they will teach their children this from birth. I am not a Journalist but I would never go where Geraldo is without being armed and expect to be treated as such.
They do not accept the fact that there are non combatants there they are not Islam and they will die.
This is why all the other journalists died there...they did not understand this.
If ones goes there, they must understand that there is no respecting of people and one must be prepared to kill or die. Regards, RAWGUY
I'm finding it a little harder to dislike Geraldo.
May I join you in a DITTOWORSHIP? This one time only though ... and only for a second ... there! That was enough. Phew!
He sat in a car while his Vietnamese co-workers convinced the soldiers that Bell was a journalist, not a CIA agent.
"If I had been carrying a weapon, I doubt if that argument would have gone over well," Bell said.
I don't think there were quite as many apolitical criminal gangs in Vietnam--these gangs would kill Geraldo or any other journalist in a heartbeat in order to steal from them. Not only that, but the VC apparently respected journalists--the Taliban is TRYING TO KILL JOURNALISTS. They've posted a bounty for the killing of any Western Journalist. Neutrality on the part of individual journalists would be SUICIDE.
Yes, indeed! Just yesterday, (or was it early this morning?) we on FR learned that Geraldo had changed his ascot from blue to rust brown. A color-coordinated change in keeping with the colors of the name of his new employer:The Foxx News Network.
My question is: Does anyone know if the handle of his pistol is color-coordinated with his new rust-colored ascot?
Let us hope that the handles are not a gauche pearl-handled, afterall, Geraldo is NOT General Patton!
It is important for members of "the media" to look right, even if their news "story" is not right.
Traitorous and hiden behind the skirts of the first ammendment. I have no problem with Geraldo packing heat. More power to him. If other journalists think that something about "being a journalist" will protect them, I suggest they go ask the 8 dead journalists. (Oh wait!!! They can't because dead is dead!!!)
Well said Skywalk!!! I understand what you said perfectly!!
FRegards!!
You are presicely right! I'll bet "Jerry Rivers" carries when he's on one of his ocean going cruises too.
Pirates ya' know! Arrrrrrrrrr Maties! Avast and shiver me timbers ... a liberal exercising his 2A Rights. Amazing!
Don't forget number three: or don't know how to fire a (gasp) gun!
Here's another one!
I like the way you put it.
I will tell you one thing, if you are going to be in Afganistan, go armed as you will be dealt with very harshly if captured. This will be true whether you are a Journalist or not. It will also not matter if you are a woman or a child, do not plan on being captured there as dying outright will be much easier.
I have never been a fan of Geraldo, in fact I always dispised the Guy. I have to sat that I have a respect for him now. You have to respect someone for just being there in this mess.
Mr. Geraldo knows the rules and I'm sure that he knows that he tosses the Geneva convention rules out the window as they apply to him if he packs a weapon.
He can toss this protection if he pleases but I think he realizes the situation and that it is just retoric when bullets are flying at you.
Either way he is a dead man if shot in battle or as a civilian and these people do not care about him either way.
He is not an Islamic extremist and he will die for that reason if they get the opportunity to do it.
Blurring the lines between a reporter and a soldier? What? Geraldo, at least, is an American. Apparently he is an American first, and a reporter second. BRAVO
Can't say the same for the rest of the liberal candy-@ss reporters. They are above the fray, aren't they? They have to be objective...they told us so. Can't possibly take sides, can't say one way is right and the other wrong. I hope they try to claim freedom of speech and press in Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
< /rant>
My sentiments exactly, Trout!
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