Geraldo Admits He Was In Love With Barbara Walters But She Rejected Him, Makes Racially Charged Comment About Her Lover

Update: In addition to making the racially-charged joke below, Geraldo admitted that he was "in love" with Barbara Walters in the 1970s and she rejected his advances. "I'll tell you one affair she didn't have," he told the co-hosts. "I put all my best moves on Barbara. ...I had been in love. I had a huge crush on Barbara." But Geraldo says she "gave [him] the brush off," pinching his cheek and saying, "Oh, you're so cute."

Watch:

Original Post: This morning on "Fox & Friends," Geraldo Rivera made an offensive and racially-charged joke about Barbara Walters' affair with married Senator Edward Brooke, who is black. Barbara told Oprah yesterday (in a show to air next week) that she had an affair in the 1970s with the Republican Senator from Massachusetts.

"Once you go black, you don't go back," Geraldo joked.

Watch:

Previously: "Fox & Friends" Hosts Reject Geraldo's Schwarzenegger Steroids Joke

Comments

[kcnativnla]

Maybe I'm clueless, but I've never been offended by "once you go black, you don't go back". How is it offensive to basically say that being with a black person is such a pleasurable experience, that you won't want to change?

Hell, I wish all African-American stereotypes were this type of "offensive".

[gregjones]

CNN IS THE NEW FOX !!!! As a news/political junkie I've always noticed how the media has led us like sheep regarding our invasion of Iraq. Daily I'd flip through cable news shows in search of TRUTH. I felt long ago, and Huffington recently exposed, how the military 'experts' were being paid by the Pentagon (aka Bush regime) to lie and mislead the American people regarding Iraq. This means all the cable networks have been part of this manipulation. NOW I'M NOTICING A NEW TREND AT CNN !!!! CNN has quietly made changes that are a bit scary. First, they brought Keran Gentry from Fox. Their overall tone started sounding more GOPish. They took Solidad and Miles, replaced them with John Roberts and Campbell Brown (husband works at Fox). Added Tony Snow (formerly of Fox and Bush's Press spokesperson)...now the addition of Bush's former spokewoman Francis Townsend. Also, flip from CNN to FOX during Live broadcasts you'll see that they are using the same camera source, ie....WORKING TOGETHER !! These changes mean only 1 of 2 things. They expect Obama to get the nomination and want to join Fox (and much of MSNBC) in attacking him......or they've been notified by the regime that something big (bomb Iran?) is ahead....Either way the manipulative media is getting set for massive lieing.... Fooled us once (Iraq War)....but as they say....NEVER AGAIN !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Greg Jones
www.Blacks4Barack.org
(A Multi-Racial, Grassroots Org...Dedicated To Truth)

[Ides]

That's insensitive and racially charged? I just thought it was true.

[BetterAmerica]

I don't really think that's racist-but I'm definitely not an authority.

AA men do have that reputation but it's not PC to say it.

[Jasel]

Why is it so many white people act like the absolute authority on what is racist and what isn't? Especially with their never ending god-awful track record regarding racism to begin with.

[Desdemondo]

Barbara has so much class, little wonder she chose someone else with the goods and brushed-off Geraldo.

Revaldo is however correct: Once you go BLACK you do not go back - its a simple matter of gratification. The proof of the pudding in in the eating - is there something Geraldo has omitted to tell us?

[xmw]

OK...WHAT IS RACIST ABOUT THIS???GERALDO COULD BE A RACIST. I DON'T THINK SO BUT THIS IS NOT A RACIST STATEMENT. I'M BLACK AND I APPROVE HIS STATEMENT.

[Trill]

Well, I have called Geraldo previously on his racist comments and statements. What he said was not appropriate and is a stereotype = racist.

Besides, IT IS NOT true. Not all men of any race are endowed healthily(is that a word?) I think you get the point. I am Black and have known a few men of various races. "Paper clips" abide in all. How's your critical thinking, inference, etc., etc?

[ishy]

Geraldo, you'll do or say anything for 30 seconds of "fame". You are such an idiot.

[ProfessorDuh]

In love with Barbara Walters? A woman who once dated the hideous closet homosexual and character assassin Roy Cohn for power and access? Couldn't Rivera find anyone more loathsome to fall in love with?

[wayoutleft]

"OOOO! OOOO!! SENATOW BWOOKE!!!"
when you can't pronounce "r"'s, you can't go back.

[ultramagnetic]

wayoutleft you owe a bottle of tylenol. I bumped my head when I fell out of my chair laughing so hard.

[IntelligentDesign]

Sick and sicker.

[ebanks84]

It absolutely makes me sick to hear people with that "JUST GET OVER IT" crap and I'm so glad I'm not near one when they say it. That's like saying "get over" being Black. How do you do that? I wish each one of you who says it will turn Black instantly and have to live that way the rest of your life. That would be true retribution for me. And I love being Black, but you won't!

[afrographia]

People, the issue is not whether saying "Once you go Black..." is racist or not. The issue is why race is the first and sometimes only thing people focus us. And when they do, it is usually to make reference to a perceived racial trait: the "sexual wildness" (read: jungle) of Black lovers, the "hotness" of Latin lovers, the "exoticness" or "passivity" of Asian lovers...and those are just the sexual stereotypes! So even if we disagree whether the phrase is racist, we have to think why Geraldo chose to explain his loss in racial terms(crassly, penile endowment), rather than say that Barbara may have been more intrigued by dating a US Senator than some two-bit pseudo-journalist.

And more importantly that what Geraldo may or may not have been thinking, what are you and I thinking when we do the same thing--that is, run to race as an explanation above all else?

[Thecookie]

Excellent points all around ...
http://lifeisacookie.wordpress.com/

[granamica]

It was the line by the blonde bit who said, "...who by the way was African American.' That was the point where it went from angst about a married man to a man of questionable ethnicity.

By the way, I think Walters was always a terrible interviewer and she has become noted for talents I do not hear in her work.

[Ides]

That's far more offensive than what Geraldo Rivera said.

[Grammie]

So, which way do you all who are jumping all over Rivera want to go?

Are we living in a world that has almost totally broken with our ugly past and moved into the world represented by Obama's Philadephia speech?

Or, are we still living in a world where race is so paramount that an amusing little joke is treated with the same outrage that Bull Connors is?

[4Quarters]

30+ years later and Geraldo is still salty peanuts...i wonder what is his current wife is thinking..."maybe I need to go black:"......the statement is true, that is the entire reason white men in the past pushed racism...well that, free labor justification and elimination. Its hard to walk around not wanting to show women what you are working with and that you know how to work it., especially other race of women.