Geraldo Rivera Slams Fox News For Its Coverage Of Mollie Tibbetts’ Murder, Making It About Immigration
Geraldo Rivera slammed Fox News, his own network, for its commentators’ continual attempts to use Mollie Tibbetts’ murder as a talking point about illegal immigration, Mediaite is reporting.
This week, the news broke that the suspect in the murder of the 20-year-old Iowa jogger was 24-year-old Christhian Rivera, who is reportedly in the country illegally (although his immigration status is in dispute). Since that time, several conservatives have attempted to use the woman’s murder as a talking point about illegal immigration. For example, as reported by the Inquisitr, Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, and conservative think tank Turning Point USA have all attempted to make Mollie’s murder about illegal immigration.
So has Fox News and its various commentators. And on Thursday night, Martha MacCallum, with Geraldo Rivera as a guest, tried once again to bring up the issue of illegal immigration in regard to Mollie Tibbetts’ murder.
“The fact of the matter is that he was here illegally and for some people, that — they look at that and they say look, this is just another indicator, we have a terrible lax process at our border.”
Calling his own network’s coverage of the murder “spin,” according to Media Matters, Rivera had little patience for MacCallum’s take on the issue.
“I know that most of the Fox audience disagrees with me, but I’m begging you to have compassion and not brand of this entire population by the deeds of this one person… This is a murder story, not an immigration story.”
You can watch the video in its entirety below.
Rivera also responded to criticism from Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who earlier on Thursday called Democrats “accomplices” to Mollie’s murder for their stance on immigration.
“To be called by that bottom feeding politician an accomplice to this young lady’s murder, that something I cannot abide. He is stereotyping 11 million people in our country here without documentation. They care for our babies, they mow our lawns, they wash our dishes, they pick our fruit, they pack our meat, they process our poultry.”
Do you agree with Texas Lt. Gov. @DanPatrick?? https://t.co/ElmASvJwuU pic.twitter.com/PZOwLO8545
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 23, 2018
It isn’t just Geraldo Rivera who would like conservatives, and the conservative media, to stop using Mollie Tibbetts’ murder to push their anti-immigration agenda. As of this writing, at least two women purporting to be family members of the murdered Iowa woman, have asked for respect in light of Mollie’s murder, and have asked for her name to not be used as a talking point about immigration.
