Geraldo Rivera departed Fox News under less-than-ideal circumstances earlier this year. That doesn’t mean he can’t share admiration for departing Fox Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch.
During an appearance on CNN Tonight with Laura Coates after Murdoch announced he would exit his long-held role with the company, Rivera had good things to say about the media titan.
“He has always been nice to me, kind to me, (and) generous. When they cut my salary in half — when they had the big cutback before the pandemic — I went up and I said, ‘Hey boss, this is not right. I went in to combat for you and this and that,’ and he called downstairs and he said, ‘Okay, restore part of that cut.’ So, I see him as a good boss,” Rivera said. “A vibrant, charismatic guy, still full of verb and energy at 92 years old.”
Rivera went on to defend Murdoch from accusations that the salacious and partisan news coverage provided by his outlets was a ploy to advance conservative causes.
“I think it does a disservice to think that it was all sleazy kind of opportunism because I don’t believe that he believed that. I believe that he was sincerely motivated,” said Geraldo Rivera. “He could have, for example, when Fox News was being created, gone the way of other Fox syndicated programs like A Current Affair and gone tabloid and celebrities and all that TMZ kind of stuff.
“Instead, he went to serve a conservative audience, and while I disagree with almost everything in all of their positions — the majority of talent at Fox News — I appreciate the fact that half the people believe — for example — that abortion is a moral wrong, or that gun rights are absolute, or that immigration is bad, or that the climate is not changing. They’re very skeptical about that. Those are people who deserve to have their media.”
