Geraldo Rivera took his final leave of Fox News last week, and in his last appearance on the network, he praised the impact positive action has had on his career after the Supreme Court overturned college admissions policies.
Appearing on Friday during a celebratory farewell show on Fox and Friends where fellow conservative news network colleagues wore fake mustaches with balloons in the background, Rivera noted that he was a “product of affirmative action” as one of his co-hosts asked him to reflect on how his career in broadcast news service has touched the Hispanic community.
“Thank you for the opportunity because affirmative action has just been rejected by the United States Supreme Court and it is a very controversial decision that will affect many people of color,” Rivera said. “I was a product of affirmative action over half a century ago.”
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Geraldo Rivera Says He Left Fox News After Being Fired From ‘The Five’ (Video)
“When the Ford Foundation and Columbia Journalism School came together to integrate local news teams in New York, there were no black reporters, no Hispanic reporters, no women, and that was shocking,” Rivera continued. “And that was only in 1968/69. So I was chosen. I made headlines representing a group of Puerto Rican activists, the Young Lords, who had taken over some buildings up in Spanish Harlem. And I was her attorney and her negotiator. And I’ve made a lot of news as a speaker. And that’s how I was discovered, and they put me through the Columbia program, and the rest is history.”
The Fox News host’s last on-air appearance — confirmed to be his last by a Fox News rep who said the network had “reached an amicable conclusion with Geraldo” — also celebrated Rivera’s expansive career, and appeared to be stopping there a good grade, despite the back and forth of Rivera’s departure.
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Rivera announced his departure from The Five over a week ago due to “a growing tension that goes beyond editorial differences,” but said at the time he would remain a “correspondent at large.” However, on Thursday Rivera told fans on social media that he had left Fox News after being fired from The Five.
“So it doesn’t look like I’m going to be on ‘The Five’ — I mean, I’m not going to be on ‘The Five,'” Rivera said in a video Posted Thursday. “I got fired from The Five and that’s why I left Fox. I’ll have more to say on that on Fox and Friends tomorrow morning.”
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Geraldo Rivera says he’s off “The Five” on Fox News because of “rising tensions that go beyond editorial differences.”