Early stages
Geraldo Rivera was hired by WABC-TV in 1970 as a reporter for
Eyewitness News. In 1972, he garnered national attention and won a Peabody Award for his report on the neglect and abuse of mentally retarded patients at Staten Island's Willowbrook State School and began to appear on ABC national programs such as
20/20 and
Nightline. After John Lennon watched Rivera's report on the patients at Willowbrook, he and Rivera formed a benefit concert called "One to One" (released in 1986 as
Live in New York City.) Rivera reported Lennon's murder on
Nightline on December 8, 1980. Rivera also appeared in
The U.S. vs. John Lennon, a movie about Lennon and Yoko Ono's lives in New York City. It was released in 2007.
Around this time, Rivera also began hosting ABC's
Good Night America. The show featured the famous refrain from Arlo Guthrie's hit "City Of New Orleans" (written by Steve Goodman) as the theme. An episode of the program aired in 1975 showed the first national telecast of the historic
Zapruder Film.
After Elvis Presley died in 1977, various media mistakenly reported that he had died from a heart attack. Rivera then investigated Presley's prescription drug records and concluded that he had died from multiple drug intake. His conclusion caused Tennessee medical authorities to later revoke the medical license of Dr. George C. Nichopoulos, for overprescribing.
In October 1985, ABC's Roone Arledge refused to air a report done by Sylvia Chase, for
20/20 on the relationship between Marilyn Monroe and John and Robert Kennedy. Rivera publicly criticized Arledge's journalistic integrity, claiming that Arledge's friendship with the Kennedy family (for example, Pierre Salinger, a former Kennedy aide, worked for ABC News at the time) had caused him to spike the story; as a result, Rivera was fired. Sylvia Chase quit
20/20, although she returned to ABC News many years later. It has never aired.
In April 1986, Rivera hosted the syndicated special
The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault, an ill-conceived adventure where Rivera excavated what he had been told was the site of Al Capone's buried treasure trove. Rivera broadcast live as the site was excavated, fully expecting to find a store of the former gangster's wealth. The show was heavily advertised, particularly on Chicago's WGN television station. A medical examiner was brought along for the excavation in case any dead bodies were excavated. The show was on air for several hours, displacing regularly scheduled programming, as Rivera's team penetrated the vault he was sure would yield the famed loot. Ultimately, the vault was found to contain a few broken bottles. Rivera held one of these bottles aloft for the camera and excitedly stated that it had once contained "bootleg moonshine gin".
Talk show and Satanism special
In 1987, Rivera began producing and hosting the daytime talk show
Geraldo, which ran for 11 years. The show featured controversial guests and theatricality, which led to the characterization of his show as "Trash TV" by
Newsweek and two United States senators. One of the early shows was titled "Men in Lace Panties and the Women Who Love Them". His nose was broken in a well-publicized brawl during a 1988 show, involving white supremacists, anti-racist skinheads, black activists, and Jewish activists.
In 1987, he hosted the first of a series of prime time special reports dealing with an alleged epidemic of Satanic ritual abuse. He stated:
- "Estimates are that there are over 1 million Satanists in this country ... The majority of them are linked in a highly organized, very secretive network. From small towns to large cities, they have attracted police and FBI attention to their Satanic sexual child abuse, child pornography and grisly Satanic murders. The odds are that this is happening in your town."
More credible estimates are about 10,000 adult members of religious Satanic churches, temples and grottos as well as 10,000 solitary practitioners of Satanism. Geraldo Rivera'S Influence On The Satanic Ritual Abuse And Recovered Memory Hoaxes
Later career
In 1994, he began hosting nightly discussion of the news on CNBC called
Rivera Live while continuing to host
Geraldo. The show was portrayed in the final episode of
Seinfeld, with Rivera as himself reporting on the lengthy trial of the show's four main characters.
Later, he would take his talk show in a different direction, moving it from "Trash TV" to a more subdued, serious show, and changed its name from
Geraldo to
The Geraldo Rivera Show. By this time, however, the show had run its course, and was cancelled in 1998.
In 1997, Rivera contracted with NBC to work as a reporter for six years for $30 million, including hosting
Rivera Live on CNBC. During 1998 and 1999, he extensively covered the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, he accepted a pay cut and went to work for the Fox News Channel as a war correspondent in November 2001. Rivera's brother Craig accompanied him as a cameraman on assignments in Afghanistan.
Controversy arose in early 2003, while Rivera was traveling with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq. During a Fox News broadcast, Rivera began to disclose an upcoming operation, even going so far as to draw a map in the sand for his audience. The military immediately issued a firm denunciation of his actions, saying it put the operation at risk, and nearly expelled Rivera from Iraq. Two days later, he announced that he would be reporting on the Iraq conflict from Kuwait.
In 2005. Rivera engaged in a feud with
The New York Times over their allegations that he pushed aside a member of a rescue team in order to be filmed "assisting" a woman in a wheelchair down some steps in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The ensuing controversy caused Rivera to appear on television and demand a retraction from the
Times. He further threatened to sue the paper if one was not provided. Geraldo Rivera might sue The New York Times - TV Squad
On September 1, 2007, Rivera criticized Fox News Channel contributor and substitute host Michelle Malkin. Geraldo apologized publicly on
The O'Reilly Factor on September 14, 2007.
In 2008, Rivera came out with a book called
Why Americans fear Hispanics in the U.S.. The title "His Panic" is a play on the word "Hispanic", and describes the anti-Hispanic racism in the United States. Rivera himself is part Hispanic, his father coming from Puerto Rico.
On September 12, 2008, during the Fox News coverage of Hurricane Ike, Rivera was knocked over by the storm surge debris while reporting live in Galveston near the 17 foot high sea wall.
