Geraldo Rivera: Idiot

Geraldo Rivera is a perfect example of what is wrong with the present media, where hype is everything and calm information is nothing. Scare speculation and "horror"/scare pictures are what these people are interested in, and not facts.

 

Would you believe it?  Local weather people generally do NOT stand out in the middle of an El Paso thunderstorm, "braving" the wind and the lightening.  They don't even usually stand out in the middle of an El Paso dust storm.  Why not?  Because they are not STUPID.  What does it prove to stand out in a thunderstorm, with lightening bolts crashing around you, or to stand in the middle of a dust storm showing how uncomfortable it is.  Showing reporters unable to stand up in wind gives NO information--serves NO useful purpose.  I am aware that El Paso storms are not quite up to the level of a hurricane, although some come close.  But the principle is the same.  STANDING out in an El Paso storm tells you NOTHING about the strom, other than it is pretty stupid to be standing out in it.

 

That brings us to the self-caricature, and COMIC relief, of Geraldo Rivera.  Who could make up last night?  I probably spent TWO minutes watching Geraldo last night, rather than the one minute I watched some other coverage in other surfing explorations over the Ike "coverage", even though I hate myself in the morning. But it was FUNNY.

 

Gerald is there trying to show he can endure WORSE conditions than any other reporter, in his dedication to ........BE STUPID.  What happened?   Geraldo put himself in a position that he could give NO useful information, and could not even contribute to the program, because he was in conditions where broadcasting was impossible.

 

Therefore, you had the truly amazing spectacle of Gerald trying to "interview" disaster reilief people when both they and we could not HEAR him.  That is because of the wind noise, AND because his equipment kept cutting out.  What was the SENSE of that?  In microcosm, Geraldo proved that the entire approach of present day media to disaster coverage is WRONG.  You can't provide INFORMATIN being whipped around by wind and rain.

 

That is the point:  Providing information was not what this was about.  It is not what the media is about now.  This was about GERALDO, and IMAGES.  The idea was to show dramatic PICTURES of Geraldo against the hurricane.  As I said in the previous entry, this is about Geraldo being the HERO of a horror movie, rather than about informing the public.

 

It was ridiculous.  What is more, they KPET showing Geraldo, even though he was unintelligible.  Nothing could better illustrate that the imagery and hype was the point, and information was irrlevant.

 

Geraldo:  You are a publicity seeking IDIOT, and always have been (ever since Al Capone's vault).   The problem is that you have become an accurate reflection of what Cable TV is all about. 

 

P.S.  The "Flying, Fickle Finger of Fate" will be awarded this afternoon.  Despite the late attempr by Geraldo to get the dreaded/coveted "Finger" this week, he has failed to be important enough.  Hint:  CNN might be "in the mix" to get the "Finger" for the second week in a row.