Former Fox News host Geraldo Rivera told Mediaite he was praised by some of the network's employees after he criticized Tucker Carlson for his reporting about the Capitol riot on January 6, going as far as to say Carlson made a mockery of reporting.
Rivera said it sickened him for Carlson to suggest January 6 was an inside job by the federal government. When he publicly said Carlson was wrong to suggest that, he said he got calls thanking him for speaking out.
"I got calls within Fox, 'Right on. We're shocked, we're outraged by what Tucker trying to do. Thank you for speaking out,' people that could not speak out. I even advised some prominent people just to cool it. I could take the heat because I felt I was more bulletproof...I felt that I could say things that others, perhaps more vulnerable or early in their careers, could not say," Rivera explained.
"It was pathetic, really pathetic," he continued. "[Carlson] really got way too big for his britches. The worst thing about what he did was the ruthless pragmatism that he displayed. I’m going to do this because that’s what the audience wants. In other words, it wasn’t the malevolent media leading the audience. It was the audience leading the malevolent media."
"What he did was unforgivable," he added. "He made a mockery of the tenets of journalism."
Rivera said all reporters do sensationalism to some degree but he believes Carlson went too far.
This is not the first time Rivera has gone after Carlson since leaving Fox News. In July, he told "The View" he would never forgive Carlson for how he reported about new findings in what happened on January 6.
Carlson's reporting irked some within Fox News after releasing additional footage from inside the Capitol building showing how some narratives around key individuals were not true. Jacob Chansley, the "Q Anon shaman," was shown to be escorted around by Capitol Police instead of being arrested on the spot. He was not violent while inside the complex.