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Article: Happy birthday ... to the man who put the "tell" into television. (Geraldo Riviera) (Interview)
- Article from:
- Interview
- Article date:
- July 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Get out the fireworks--Geraldo Rivera, the forefather of trash television, turns fifty-one on the Fourth of July. Don't get us wrong, we don't use the term "trash" pejoratively. In fact, what would be a better way to refer to the way Rivera shook up the world of white-bread, pre-Geraldo network news than "trashing the place"?
How was he discovered? An executive at New York's WABC-TV noticed the handsome, Jewish-Puerto Rican lawyer-activist when he appeared on the Today show representing the Young Lords, a group of Puerto Rican radicals. The station made Rivera a news reporter, giving him a camera crew and letting him keep his long hair and bell-bottoms. Rivera's ...