Reply #19: You Guys Lose - Here's The Geraldo Story (Hilarious!) [View All]

[DrFunkenstein]

During one satellite dispatch, Geraldo frantically ducked for cover, claiming a bullet had narrowly missed his noggin. Viewers were left to wonder whether it had been fired by an al Qaeda sniper or a disgruntled member of Geraldo's own crew.

In another memorable segment, our daring correspondent lithely descended a cave to hunt for signs of bin Laden, a search that die-hard Geraldo fans hoped would end at Al Capone's vault.

So far, though, the highlight of his Afghan adventure was an emotional report from the ``hallowed ground'' where three U.S. soldiers accidentally had been killed by an errant American bomb.

Reported Geraldo: ``It was just, the whole place, just fried really, and bits of uniforms and tattered clothing everywhere. I said the Lord's prayer and really choked up.''

One tiny problem: Geraldo wasn't anywhere near the site of the fatal bombing. He transmitted his story from Tora Bora, hundreds of miles from Kandahar, where the friendly-fire tragedy occurred.

This rather humongous factual error was pointed out in a critical article by David Folkenflik, the television writer for The Baltimore Sun.

In response, Geraldo blamed ``the fog of war.'' He said he had ``confused'' two separate incidents and actually had been at the scene where two or three Afghan fighters -- not the American troops -- had been killed.

Unfortunately, that version of the story hasn't held up well, either. The Pentagon told Folkenflik that the friendly-fire deaths at Tora Bora occurred three days after Geraldo filed his initial report.

Wrote Folkenflik: ``Fox News did not have any explantation for how Rivera could have been confused by an event that had not yet occurred.''

http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1230-05.htm