Hating Geraldo means never having to say you're sorry

Link: Chicago Tribune | Times' `grudging' budge on nudge riles Rivera.

Nice column by Phil Rosenthal on how the New York Times bungled what would have been, at any other newspaper, a quick and painless mop-up operation after its chief TV critic, Alessandra Stanley, inferred that Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera shoved a Katrina rescuer out of the way so he could appear to be helping Granny during a live shot. Even in issuing an "Editors' Note" clarifying things, Rosenthal notes the paper stopped short of actually apologizing for an error. (Here's the three-weeks-late note, with a link to the original review.)

I don't understand the media's obsession with Geraldo any more than I understand why the chief TV critic at a leading daily would feel the need to clean up somebody's Ebonics.

But be that as it may, Rivera did a standup job during Katrina, he's got a new syndicated show in a particularly brutal daypart that will probably be a success, and he'll be able to add another wing to his sprawling New Jersey manse. The guy's good at what he does, which is to connect emotionally with viewers (as Paul Harris and I agreed earlier this month).

Television, as has been observed often, is a notoriously elitist medium: millionaires on screen talking to high-school graduates at home.  Geraldo has managed to do succeed over 30 years in this profession without letting the spoils that are his (and every other star's) affect his style one iota.