MILITARY - Seems Geraldo is non grata

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NYDailyNews

To Military, He's Geraldo non Grata

eraldo Rivera's dream of being a war correspondent is said to be running into some resistance from our own armed forces. And even former fighting leatherneck Oliver North, who's been shown the red carpet on U.S. Navy carriers, is powerless to help him, we hear.

Rivera quit a $5 million job as a CNBC talkmeister last month to cover Afghanistan for Fox News. But not everyone is cooperating with his career change.

Bad enough that gun-toting Afghans have been blocking his way to Kandahar. Worse still, sources claim, he's been getting precious little cooperation from U.S. military officials who apparently don't cotton to the left-leaning TV star.

"The military remembers his support of Bill Clinton," says one insider. "They won't let him get near stories he wants — particularly if it involves interviewing U.S. personnel."

Rivera has been trying to get into the gung-ho Fox spirit — declaring on air that he was packing a gun and might personally plug Osama Bin Laden if he found him.

Last week, Fox News chief Roger Ailes is said to have enlisted help from Marine officer-turned-pundit North, who just headed to Bahrain also as a correspondent for Fox. Ailes, says the insider, asked North to put in a good word for his colleague with the brass.

According to the source, North sent word back that his military contacts had dryly responded: "Geraldo's paperwork is not in order, and it won't be in order until the war is over."

Rivera couldn't be reached for comment. A Fox spokesman could confirm only that locals have blocked Rivera's trip to the front lines.

On his broadcast last night, Geraldo himself called his new beat "an armed no-man's land … filled with murderous danger."

An amused Pentagon spokesman said he'd "received no reports of [Rivera] experiencing any trouble," but that he was welcome to file a complaint.

-- Anonymous, December 04, 2001


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