Why Is He Still In Iraq?

WizardOfAz · April 2nd, 2003, 06:24 PM

Pentagon: Celebrity TV journalist Geraldo Rivera kicked out of Iraq

Mon Mar 31,12:49 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Celebrity television journalist Geraldo Rivera, who has been on assignment covering the US-led war in Iraq, has been told by US military officials that he is no longer welcome to accompany US troops there.

"I can confirm that it has been done," said military spokesman Navy Lieutenant Commander Charles Owens on Monday, contacted at Central Command headquarters in Qatar.

Owens said Rivera, a star of the Fox News television network, was not embedded with troops, but had been "asked to leave the unit he was with."

Military officials were short on details about reasons for Rivera's dismissal, but according to US news reports, Rivera was told to leave Iraq after an on-air appearance during which he drew a map in the sand revealing information about US troop locations.

Military officials would not confirm the reason for the move however.

"We're suggesting that people call Fox News to get details," Owens said Monday.

Officials at the network did not return phone calls for comment early Monday.

Rivera, a fixture on the US media scene for decades, is a veteran foreign correspondent who has received some of television's highest honors, including the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award and several Emmy awards, given for excellence in television reporting.

He has become best known in recent years however for tabloid fodder, particularly during a stint several years ago as host of the prime-time "Rivera Live" talk show, when he catapulted to national celebrity for his coverage of the OJ Simpson trials.

WizardOfAz · April 3rd, 2003, 01:06 PM

FNC Contributor Says If Geraldo Annoys General, He Should Go

If the Army General in charge “thinks that Geraldo is jeopardizing the security of his troops and is a distraction, then I’m with” the General, “get him out of there,” Fred Barnes proclaimed on FNC about FNC's Geraldo Rivera. Barnes added on Monday night: “If he’s a pain in the ass to the General, have him leave.”

It appears that after some negotiation between the Department of Defense and Fox News, Rivera has been removed from Iraq, where he was traveling with the Army's 101st Airborne Division, after the commanding General accused him of compromising operational security. On Sunday night/Monday morning U.S. time, live on FNC, Rivera had smoothed out some sand and then marked the present position of his unit relative to Baghdad and where he expected them to soon go.

FNC certainly isn't reticent about allowing it contributors trash Rivera, at least judging by this exchange on Monday's Special Report with Brit Hume taken down by MRC analyst Brad Wilmouth:

The Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes, a Hume show regular: “My view is if the General, General Wallace, thinks that Geraldo is jeopardizing the security of his troops and is a distraction, then I’m with General Wallace. Get him out of there.”

Morton Kondracke of Roll Call: “Look, it’s very difficult to tell on the basis of that map drawn in the ground. That map looked a lot like what I’ve seen from war rooms on every channel. I don’t see exactly what secrets he gave away, but I agree with Fred-”

Hume: “Well, I think there’s a rule of the embedded correspondents is they’re not supposed to do any mapping or location reporting of any kind.”

NPR's Mara Liasson: “And he isn’t the first one that’s been booted out for the same reason. There was a Christian Science Monitor unembedded reporter who also was thrown out.”

Barnes: “I don’t care whether he did the map or not. If he’s a pain in the ass to the general, have him leave.”

Who isn't Geraldo a pain in the ass to?

http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberal...20030402.asp#4