In another example of how Fox News will turn a story on its head if it doesn’t fit into the network’s mission of division, bias, and anti-liberalism, Geraldo Rivera appeared on Fox & Friends to divert the Trayvon Martin murder story into an indictment of fashion and an exercise in blaming the victim.
Rivera: I am urging the parents of black and Latino youngsters particularly to not let their children go out wearing hoodies. I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.
So it was Trayvon’s fault (or his parents) for wearing an article of clothing that exudes some inherent threat and justifies violent reactions against the wearer. I suppose that if Trayvon had been wearing a short skirt that would have been an invitation for Zimmerman to rape him.
Geraldo went on to assert that hoodies are exclusively associated with criminals and asked “What’s the instant identification?” He answered his own question by saying that wearing a hoodie will cause you to be perceived as a gangster and a menace. Uh huh. You mean like these degenerate hoodlums?
Geraldo and his enablers at Fox News need to stop fretting over superficial trivialities and put the blame where it belongs. Firstly on the guy with the gun who shot an innocent teenager in cold blood without provocation. Then on the barbaric “Stand your Ground” laws that permit people to commit murder with impunity. And finally on the media that rushes to divert responsibility from the guilty and place it on the victims. To paraphrase Geraldo, I think it would be more correct to say that “Fox News is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was.” Still not correct, but closer to it than what Geraldo said.
[Update:] Geraldo thinks that if someone is murdered while wearing a hoodie, that law abiding people should alter their behavior to satisfy the murderers, rather than making the murderers stop killing people. It makes you wonder how he would have viewed some other historical events.
I knew Rivera was an idiot; I didn’t realize until now that he was an a**&$#e as well.
Capone’s vault had more inside it than Geraldo’s skull.
I’m a San Diego Padres, Seattle Seahawks and San Diego State Aztecs fan. Between those three teams/schools, I have more hoodies than I can count, plus way too many others. My kids are skaters and sports fans with countless hoodies of their own. This is as common a piece of modern clothing as are basketball shoes, blue jeans and flip flops. This is truly one of the stupidest things I’ve heard. Ever.
Me, too. But don’t be surprised when it gets even stupider. As someone on another blog noted, and I agree, FOX would have done better to ignore the story entirely.
Fox would do better to ignore most stories, especially those of a political nature.
Somebody on facebook posted a picture of Bill O’Reilly and Rivera seated together in the bleachers at a sporting event, both in hoodies. So I guess what he really meant is, don’t wear hoodies if you’re BLACK.
Now Zimmerman apparently has said Trayvon punched him and the right wing racists are all denouncing him. I don’t get it. It was okay for Zimmerman to shoot because he felt threatened…but it wasn’t okay for Trayvon to punch him because he felt threatened?? (presuming he even did, and it’s not a lie).