It's hard to feel bad for Geraldo

Sadly, when we consider Rupert Murdoch's ceaseless schemes for global domination and the venal blood lust that pulses through Fox News, Geraldo is easy to explain -- which makes him simply inexcusable.

Seeing him descend bright-eyed and sweaty on wretched New Orleans, as he did in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, was like watching a vulture on crystal meth. The word that came to mind was not "reporting," but "feeding."

The only rational reaction was: Dear God! Haven't these people suffered enough?

But, as he always has, Geraldo continues to push the limits of the possible, and, in this case, the controversy currently surrounding one of his broadcasts from New Orleans demands that we squarely confront the question, "Can you wrong the indefensible?"

This time, Geraldo's antagonist is the New York Times' Alessandra Stanley, whose tangential acquaintance with the facts seems to suggest that she's the Michael D. Brown of TV critics.

As the Los Angeles Times' Scott Collins reported this week, this whole affair began Sept. 5, when Stanley wrote a piece alleging that, while reporting from the Holy Angels Resident Hall for Retired Nuns in New Orleans -- you've got to love that dateline -- Geraldo "nudged an Air Force rescue worker out of the way so his camera crew could tape him as he helped lift an older woman in a wheelchair to safety."

Rivera emphatically denies that's what happened and has demanded that the New York Times publish a correction. In fact, this columnist, who happened to see that report, didn't see any "nudging."

Unseemly, self-aggrandizing yes; nudging no.

(Now something about the conjunction of Fox and Rivera seems to provoke trivial asides, but what was up with Geraldo's scalp in New Orleans? Talk about your humidity-induced bad-hair day. For the sake of the easily alarmed, Fox should refrain from sending Geraldo anywhere where loss of power prevents operation of a blow-dryer.)

Collins agreed that a tape of the incident subsequently aired on Fox "does not appear to show Rivera nudging anyone." The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz wrote that "a review of the videotape shows no nudging or physical contact by anyone."