Geraldo Rivera Offers Half-Hearted ‘Apology’ For Hoodie Comments |
Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera offed a “heartfelt apology” today for his comments about the danger of hoodies and Travyon Martin’s death, but despite uttering the word “apology,” Rivera completely stood by his controversial comments. “I apologize to anyone offended by what one prominent black conservative called my ‘very practical and potentially life-saving campaign urging black and Hispanic parents not to let their children go around wearing hoodies,’” he said in a statement to Politico. “I remain absolutely convinced of what I said,” he added, apparently unaware of the irony. The “prominent black conservative” is Thomas Sowell, who has compared President Obama to Hitler, called liberals “traitors,” warned Obama will implement Sharia law, and wondered if “the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.”
NEWS FLASH
Geraldo Rivera Defends Hoodie Remark By Stereotyping Blacks, Latinos |
Geraldo Rivera dedicated most of his live radio programs on Monday to the Trayvon Martin story, and defended his remarks that Trayvon’s decision to wear a hoodie contributed to his shooting by George Zimmerman. “I didn’t say the hoodie specifically was a menace, I said the circumstances were menacing,” Geraldo explained to Juan Williams, who was a guest on Geraldo’s live New York broadcast. But after initially seeming to walk back his inflammatory statement, Geraldo then proceeded doubled down on his hoodie remarks. “You see a black or Latino kid and they’ve got their hoodies pulled over them so that you can’t see their expressions. What are you thinking? You’re not thinking high style, you’re thinking trouble,” said Geraldo to a caller who disagreed with him.
On Friday, Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera sparked a backlash when he seemingly blamed Trayvon Martin for his own death, saying the Florida teen should not have gone outside wearing a hoodie. “I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was,” he said.
Few came to Rivera’s defense, including his own son, who was ashamed of his father, according to Rivera himself. But on Friday night, Rivera finally found someone in his corner — Fox host Bill O’Reilly.
Appearing on The Factor that night, O’Reilly said he agreed with Rivera, explaining that he faced a similar public outcry over a separate event in which people thought the host was blaming the victim. Saying they were both simply offering “a cautionary tale,” O’Reilly said he and Rivera were doing the “exact same thing” and that “your advice was good advice, my advice was good advice.” “If you dress like a wannabe gangster, some knucklehead is going to take you at your word,” Rivera added. Watch it:
But perhaps not all cautionary tales are meant to be followed, even by those who tell them, as Rivera and O’Reilly were photographed wearing hoodies together at a Yankees game:
As a wholehost of Fox News guests and contributors have in the past supported racial profiling, one hold-out has been Geraldo Rivera. As Think Progress has documented, following the Fort Hood massacre, he passionately attacked the ineffective and discriminatory practice on Fox and Friends, where he warned against casting a “gloomy cloud of suspicion” on all Muslims and recounted his father’s fear of racial profiling as a Hispanic:
RIVERA: I think that the great tragedy of [terrorism] is that it will cast a gloomy cloud of suspicion over all the Muslim GI’s who serve with great honor …. I remember my dad, just very briefly, when we were growing up there would be a notorious crime and my dad used to gather the family and we used to say a little prayer, please God that it’s not a Puerto Rican. …. This is the same thing with American Muslims.
Watch it:
Unfortunately, on Fox and Friends this morning, Rivera reversed his position on profiling people based on their faith or country of origin. After recounting a story about how he was unhappy to be inconvenienced by his brief time on the no-fly list, he explained that “in the old days, Latinos sacrificed” by being profiled during the drug war, and that now Muslims should face similar profiling because “that’s just the way it is“:
RIVERA: How could this guy be on the no-fly list if I was on the no fly list? …. If I’m getting it, why can’t anyone from any one of these suspect countries get one of these hands-on, nothing stops that kind of stuff? …. I believe that we all sacrificed something. In the old days, Latinos sacrificed, Latinos were profiled during the anti-drug war and we had to take it. Now people from these Muslim countries, specifically like Yemen and Iraq and Afghanistan they have to understand that it’s a reasonable precaution, it’s a constitutional classification …. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is. …. We need some racial profiling, I’m sorry.
Watch it:
Perhaps Rivera should listen to his own response to Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert when satirically asked if bigotry against hispanics could be reduced by redirecting it towards Muslims: “There is a maddening tendency once your group gets over the immigrant bridge to burn the bridge so no one else can get over it. The Irish definitely encountered the same kind of hostility. It must have been some equivalent to right-wing talk show thugs then too.”
Update
A new Rasmussen poll finds that “59% of adults say factors such as race, ethnicity and overall appearance should be used to determine which boarding passengers to search at airports.”
The New York Daily News reports that a “well-placed source” claims that Geraldo Rivera has told Fox News president Roger Ailes that he’ll quit if former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs is hired by the network. Rivera has denied by the rumor, but has also made clear that Dobbs would not be welcomed with open arms:
Rivera, who has blasted the nativist Dobbs for his “slander” against Latinos, tells us [New York Daily News], “I never threatened to quit.” But he did let Ailes know he wouldn’t welcome working with the man who has called him a “cowardly liar.” Says Geraldo: “The last time I checked, no one here was talking to the a——.”
Still, Ailes is said to be considering Dobbs for the Fox Business Channel. “The trouble is Dobbs wants too much money – like $8 million a year,” says an insider. “But Dobbs doesn’t have much leverage. Since he quit CNN, he can’t go to CNBC.” Hiring him at Fox Business is bound to irk that channel’s Dobbs-phobes, John Stossel and Stuart Varney. But a rep for Ailes insists he isn’t eyeing Dobbs for anything.
Chances are Rivera’s spat with Dobbs has become deeply personal. In October, Rivera credited Dobbs for being “almost single-handedly responsible for creating, for being the architect of the young-Latino-as-scapegoat for everything that ails this country.” Dobbs responded by describing Rivera as “annoying” and full of “vile stupidity and ignorance that he spews everywhere he goes.”
Curiously, Rivera doesn’t seem to have a big problem working with other Latino- and immigrant-bashers at his network. The blame doesn’t just rest on Dobbs’ shoulders when it comes to generating an atmosphere of hate, misinformation, and fear that surrounds the immigration issue. Fox News anchors Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and many others have all served up a daily dose of slander. While Rivera has heatedly challenged his colleagues’ views, he certainly hasn’t put his job on the line over such differences.
This weekend, in an interview with Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera, action star and conservative activist Chuck Norris pointed out that most undocumented immigrants are “good and law abiding” and even proposed a three-step plan for providing them with a path to legalization. Norris went as far to suggest that friend and political idol, Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-AK), might support his proposal:
NORRIS: A lot of my [KickStart] students parents were or are illegal immigrants. But they’re making a living here and they’re law-abiding citizens. And my solution to it is give them a work-permit for two years, and for two years — if they maintain their law-abiding status — then give them a permanent worker permit. And in three years after that, let them apply for their US citizenship.
RIVERA: We should lobby Gov. Huckabee about that. Because I say if the Republicans reached out to Latinos on the issue of immigration, I think that the Republicans would be the majority Party.
NORRIS: Oh, I think Mike would go for this.
Watch it:
It would come as a breath of fresh air if Huckabee adopted Norris’ position on immigration, but it might take some convincing. While relatively moderate on immigration during his tenure as governor, Huckabee’s immigration platform veered far to the right during his presidential campaign in 2008. Huckabee specifically signed an anti-immigrant group’s “No-Amnesty Pledge” which made clear that he opposed allowing undocumented immigrants to remain in the US and would not support a path back to the US once they were deported back to their home countries. His own immigration plan was modeled after the right-wing diatribe of anti-immigrant zealot, Mark Krikorian. Throughout his campaign, Huckabee sparred in a tit-for-tat debate with Gov. Mitt Romney over who was toughest on immigration.
It wouldn’t be easy, but Huckabee and the Republican Party would probably benefit from regaining the trust and respect of Latino voters. Several members of the GOP leadership came out of last year’s elections saying the GOP seriously needs to “change its tune” on immigration. That includes former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Republican strategist Karl Rove, Colin Powell, former Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL), and many more.
This afternoon, Lou Dobbs attacked Fox News host Geraldo Rivera for stating that Dobbs himself is “almost single-handedly responsible for creating, for being the architect of the young-Latino-as-scapegoat for everything that ails this country.” While Rivera accuses Dobbs of defaming an entire race of people, Dobbs insists that he loves immigrants and Latinos and claims that his accusations are nothing but a reflection of Rivera’s “stupidity” and the company of “ethnocentric left-wing activists” that he keeps:
DOBBS: I’m just still fuming over something that Geraldo Rivera said. I shouldn’t let — This guy is nothing but a fiction of his own imagination and a figment of whatever he sees in the mirror. But, I gotta tell you — the guy is so annoying. I should not let people get to me like this, but you know what? I’m starting to get short of patience with them. [...]
Geraldo Rivera wouldn’t know a fact if it hit him in the rear end — and that would probably be an appropriate place if you wanted him to absorb the information. … This is the kind of vile stupidity and ignorance that he spews everywhere he goes.
Listen here:
“Over the years, Lou Dobbs has consistently used his CNN platform to spread hatred and fear,” states Drop Dobbs, one of three campaigns aimed at pressuring CNN to hold Dobbs to journalistic standards or drop him altogether. News Corp. is reportedly “keen” on luring Dobbs over to the Fox Business Channel. However if CNN does drop Dobbs, it doesn’t look like he’ll have too many friends over at Fox. Last week, Dobbs ripped Fox Business News anchor John Stossel as a “self-important ass” with his “own brand of myopic idiocy” after Stossel told Fox News’ “rodeo clown” Glenn Beck that he does not support “the Lou Dobbs-kind of rants about immigrants wrecking America.” Rivera says that one of his Fox News bosses assured him that Dobbs “is not coming to Fox News.”
The New York Daily News 
