Not that Geraldo Rivera is anybody's idea of a real journalist, but September 30 edition of "Geraldo At Large" on Fox News featured a video about Blackwater that was riddled with inaccuracies.
Geraldo (pictured revealing the battle plan that got him booted from Iraq) wasn't on that night, but the video, narrated and produced by his brother, Craig Rivera, was wrong on a number of facts:
- Wrong fact #1: Craig Rivera narrates the video about the September 16 incident, saying that Blackwater guards used "heavy weapons." Rivera's statement is false. Blackwater diplomatic security support teams in Iraq are not issued heavy weapons. A "heavy weapon" at its lightest is a belt-fed machine gun. Blackwater is not issued such weapons for convoy use. Its men generally carry the M-4 carbine.
- Wrong fact #2: Craig Rivera says in the video that Blackwater used "attack helicopters" in the incident. Several things are wrong with this statement. First, only one helicopter was involved in the incident, so the use of the plural is an exaggeration. Second, Blackwater does not fly attack helicopters in Iraq. The only Blackwater helicopter at the incident was an MH-6 helicopter, nicknamed "Little Bird." The MH-6 is not an attack helicopter. According to the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military Terms, an attack helicopter is "A helicopter specifically designed to employ various weapons to attack and destroy enemy targets." The MH-6 was designed as an observer and scout helicopter and can be used as an assault helicopter for special operations, but it is not an attack helicopter. Finally, sources close to the investigation of the incident say that no one aboard the Little Bird fired a shot.
- Wrong fact #3: The mother and brother of Jerry Zovko, a Blackwater contractor killed in Fallujah, were guests on the show, but Rivera's presentation erroneously showed the photo of another Blackwater contractor, Scott Helvenston, who died in the same 2004 incident. Viewers were left with the impression that the picture was of Zovko.
- Wrong fact #4: Rivera calls Blackwater "the most powerful mercenary army in the world." Blackwater does not fit either the legal or dictionary definition mercenary, and it is not an "army." Rivera weasels his way on this one, citing anonymous others as making the label, not himself personally, but as the video shows, this is an editorial tactic to inject his own opinion disguised as others' views.
