Geraldo Rivera, the man whose height of fame (and infamy, two things he has trouble telling apart) came when a neo-Nazi broke his nose during an altercation on his trashy syndicated talk show over 30 years ago, would like you to think he Spoke Truth To Power⹠when it came to now-former fellow Fox News employee Tucker Carlson.
Twitter users would like Rivera, the token liberal on Fox, to know what they think of him. Namely: âHe is such a loser.â
So, as youâve no doubt heard if you follow cable news in general or Fox News specifically, Carlson, long the networkâs top-rated prime-time host, was let go without warning on Monday afternoon.
There was no reason given at the time, just a terse statement from the network that âFox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.â
The general assumption was that it had something to do with the networkâs $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over individuals who came on the network in the wake of the 2020 election and claimed the companyâs vote-tabulation software and hardware were responsible for massive voter fraud.
However, Carlson was actually one of the first hosts to explicitly call these theories out on air, and other sources pointed to Carlsonâs faith combined with the increasing instability of Fox News shot-caller Rupert Murdoch, now 92.
Regardless of what the reason actually was, that didnât stop Geraldo Rivera from wading into the controversy like he knew what was inside Al Caponeâs vault. and bad-mouthing Carlson in the process.
WARNING: The following tweets contain graphic language that some readers will find offensive.
âI donât wish ill on anybody, but there is no doubt-as I said at the time-Tucker Carlsonâs perverse January 6 conspiracy theory was âbulls***,'â Rivera tweeted.
âHaving lost the election President Trump incited an insurrection that sought to undermine our Constitutional process.â
Now, first off: If you ever feel the need to start a social media missive with âI donât wish ill on anybodyâŠâ, stop. Stop right there, delete it all, practice deep breathing and share something more useful, like a video of a re-enactment of the Battle of Gettysburg done entirely with hamsters or something like that.
Second, the co-host on Fox Newsâ âThe Fiveâ didnât follow up with which âperverse January 6 conspiracy theory was âbulls***'â and hasnât tweeted about it since then. Carlson recently aired video of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol incursion that showed it to be far less of a âcoupâ or a âthreat to democracyâ than Democrats have intimated, but Geraldo seems to indicate in his tweet that his qualms go back further.
Needless to say, this reaction was met with near-universal non-acclaim, including from Riveraâs co-host on âThe Five,â Greg Gutfeld, who sarcastically called him âa class actâ:
Another said it was time for Geraldo to âseek help!â
Another brought up âThe Mystery of Al Caponeâs Vaultsâ, the infamous, much-hyped live televised special in which Rivera hosted and did a play-by-play as fortune-hunters blasted into what was supposed to be the gangsterâs personal safe to report on what they found. Spoiler alert: Nothing of worth.
Another Twitterer advised Rivera to âtake a good hard look in the mirror and look at yourself and reflect, and also use it to comb your hair once in awhile.â
However, two tweets best summed up the entire affair. One remarked that Rivera is a serial loser who somehow still managed to hang onto relevance long after heâd been disgraced many, many times.
Another simply noted that Foxâs, um, interesting personnel decisions was causing him to take his viewership elsewhere:
And thatâs the problem with Riveraâs take: The only reason he clings to a job with the network is that heâs a punching-bag liberal. He doesnât make sound arguments. He hasnât been much of a reporter for decades now; heâs an Ă©minence grise, sans Ă©minence. Heâs there because he can reliably do a bit of shouty-shouty with the rest of âThe Fiveâ and thatâs about it.
Carlson wasnât just a real presence at the network, you got the sense he was the one unafraid to speak truth to power. Itâs probably part of the reason heâs jobless right now. Rupert Murdoch is supposed to be the ultimate conservative media scion, but at the end of the day, he prefers Geraldo Rivera to Tucker Carlson.
Viewers, on the other hand, may prefer something else, as ratings for Foxâs prime-time lineup in the wake of Carlsonâs departure seem to indicate. This is why you hear calls to boycott Fox News from the right on Twitter.
And thatâs the problem for Rivera. Geraldo knows full well he canât bite the hand that feeds him, but he doesnât have enough sense to keep from biting the hand that keeps him fed â or, by the tone of this tweet, even acknowledging he knows thereâs a difference.
To put it another way: After more than a half-century in the media, Geraldo still canât figure out which vaults he should be breaking into and when someoneâs going to break his nose.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.