Occupy Wall Street's Great Unifier: Hating Geraldo Rivera

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Adam Martin 2,995 Views Oct 24, 2011

The news from Zuccotti Park over the last week and weekend has focused increasingly on the schisms and animosity within the group, but if there's one thing that keeps Occupy Wall Street protesters united better than just about anything else, it's their disdain for Geraldo Rivera. With the impending cold weather, the strain of sleeping rough, and the disagreements over how to manage the group's budget, tensions in Zuccotti Park are running high. There seems to be a rebellion brewing among the drumming group, and a prank on Sunday night where somebody told the Kitchen they'd been given an A grade by the city for sanitation (which they took seriously and cheered at first) did not go down well. "We are upset someone would play a joke with something so important to us," said Megan Hayes, a member of the food committee, via text. Then there was that guy who climbed the red thing, which organizers did not appreciate one bit. All in all, it was a pretty tough weekend at Occupy Wall Street. But then Geraldo Rivera came by, not to cover the protest but to host a segment on Baby Lisa, the infant missing in Missouri. As his appearances always do, that cameo got everybody in the park on the same page, with a crowd shouting him down and swearing at him, just like his last visit. It's a wonder the guy keeps coming back, but you've got to hand it to him for persistance. 

Mediaite has the Fox News video, with Rivera and two experts talking about Baby Lisa on Sunday night. Skip to about 3:00 to hear the jeers pick up, and then watch the sea of middle fingers as the camera pans the crowd:

Occupiers chanted their "mic check" relay, usually used to get order at their General Assembly meetings, to drown out Rivera in this clip the Huffington Post dug up:

Then there was this guy who dropped a big fat F-bomb, which Rivera said was "so lame."

But Sunday, of course was only Rivera's latest forray into the heart of darkness. He did a broadcast from the park on Oct. 10, which protesters tried their best to drown out with chants of "Fox News lies." As Restoring Truthiness points out, that's a pretty funny as Rivera goes on about how protesters "have a real legitimate complaint deep down and it is a message that I think will resonate eventually as people listen up."

The shouting wasn't as intense on Rivera's first trip to Zuccotti on Oct. 2, but as the New York Observer reported, the crowd still rallied. "The Fox anchor was immediately mobbed by Occupy Wall Street supporters who had just moments earlier been putting together a breakfast spread of bean sprout and cheese sandwiches (something that the news crews made sure to capture for B-roll). Below, Rivera answers a question from a Vice magazine reporter about the legality of the Oct. 1 arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge. See if you can hear the heckler yelling "get a job."

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