Fox’s Geraldo Rivera: Black Lives Matter Activists Are “A Bunch Of Troublemakers”

Rivera Attacks Movement Nearly One Year After A Baltimore Resident Confronted Him Over Fox's Coverage Of Racial Issues

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Fox correspondent Geraldo Rivera attacked Black Lives Matter activist and Baltimore mayoral candidate DeRay Mckesson following his unsuccessful candidacy in the Democratic primary, calling activists like him “troublemakers.” The remarks come nearly a year after Rivera was confronted on air by Baltimore protest leader and community activist Kwame Rose, who criticized Rivera and Fox's coverage of racial issues. From the April 27 edition of Fox Business' Varney & Co.:

STUART VARNEY (HOST): In Baltimore there was a vote yesterday and the Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson, he was crushed. He finished sixth in line to be the next mayor of Baltimore. He got, what, under I think three percent of the vote. Now what do you make of that?

GERALDO RIVERA: I -- first of all, I'm giving a standing ovation to the voters in Baltimore for their good sense. I covered the riots there in the wake of the Freddie Gray -- you know -- death in police custody. What I saw was a bunch of troublemakers in a town that desperately needs urban renewal. Troublemakers setting back their town, burning the assets of those poor people, burning their access to drugstores, burning the facilities in the community, making a lot of noise, attracting a lot of attention to themselves. Not caring if you take the Acela through Baltimore, you see vast swaths of that city in ruin. That city needs a lot of tender love, it doesn't need troublemakers running for mayor. The people off Baltimore showed their good sense and rejected this guy.