the kicker

Blago to Geraldo: "Is That Ethical?"

January 26, 2009

Fox News’s Geraldo Rivera was promised a “2:00 interview” with Gov. Blagojevich. Snubbed by the governor’s “sleazy PR guy,” Geraldo– “rather than allow us to be victimized here at Fox News, where the first cable news interview was promised” — went to “the parking lot of The View” to get that interview.

Highlights:

GERALDO: ….The problem is those tapes sound so tacky. They sound as if you’re attempting to sell that office …

All that was — any guesses?— “out of the proper context,” said Blagojevich. (And no, Geraldo didn’t ask the governor to supply the missing context).

GERALDO: Are you broke now?…. Are you destitute?….

Blagojevich declined to “whine” about his “fate.”

Sign up for CJR's daily email

Then, towards the end of the interview, after the governor observed that there haven’t been a lot of nice things said about him lately, came this exchange:

GERALDO: I’ll buy you dinner.

BLAGOJEVICH: Is that ethical?

Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.