Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera apologized after his tweets about sexual harassment. In tweets yesterday, he claimed “news is a flirty business” and “the current epidemic of #SexHarassmentAllegations may be criminalizing courtship & conflating it w predation.”
Rivera also suggested sexual harassment may be “used to get even w bad bosses or hated ex’s” and added a “slight chance exists some victims are motivated by more than justice.” He called for allegations to be “made in a timely fashion-say w/n 5 yrs” and with “some contemporaneous corroboration.” Rivera is a “roaming correspondent-at-large for Fox News” and has worked for the network since 2001.
He also said he was “sad about” Matt Lauer, who NBC News fired yesterday after an allegation of sexual misconduct. Rivera defended Lauer as a “great guy, highly skilled & empathetic w guests & a real gentleman to my family & me.”
After online criticism of his remarks, Rivera said on Twitter, “I didn’t sufficiently explain that this is a horrendous problem long hidden-Harassers are deviants who deserve what is coming to them-Often victims are too frightened to come forward in a timely fashion-I humbly apologize.”
Fox News also weighed in on his tweets, saying in a statement to the Washington Post, “we were troublef by his comments and are addressing them with him.” Fox News also distanced itself from his tweets. iMediaEthics has written to Fox News to ask how it was “addressing” the tweets with him.