It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. (smirk)

Geraldo Rivera, my all-time least favorite grandstanding “reporter” was setting up for a live shot today from down on the Gulf Coast — you know, standing in the teeth of Hurricane Ike and all that.

Evidently he was planning to be standing next to, or possibly on top of, a sea wall that was getting pounded by the waves. There’s a little yelp/scuffle sound just off camera and then we see Rivera picking himself up out of knee-deep water, sputtering, after being knocked off his feet by a breaking wave. I guffawed out loud! Poetic justice. I loved it!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLZ7lK7-G_A]

Then again, with his history, he probably “staged” the entire incident. Hmm. He’s not exactly on camera when he goes down …

He’s a lot like a certain infamous reporter back in Oklahoma City who didn’t report the news, she was the news. And she made sure viewers knew it. Me, me, me! See me hiring the helicopter, riding to the rescue. See me pulling people to safety. Never mind their stories, watch me save them!

Particularly sad is that I can remember back when Geraldo was first starting as a reporter, and for a few brief, very brief, shining moments he actually showed promise as an enterprising investigative reporter. Then came the Al Capone’s Vault debacle.

Since then, Geraldo’s so-called reporting isn’t even fit for supermarket tabloids, what little bit of it I’ve been unlucky enough to see, but he finally may have found his niche — comedy!

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I hate when I stoop low enough to write about stuff like the above, but I’m killing time, with one eye on the street. Somewhere in town today there’s a FedEx truck making its rounds, taking too damned much time getting here with my first brand-new big computer in five years. Hurray! Most of you, if savvy enough to be online and browsing at all, have some idea how kludgy a five-year-old computer is.