Floritta Greve rescue Epilogue
Salon’s Stephen Elliot writes about conditions in New Orleans. But the odd part of the story and the one that caught ICN’s eye was this anecdote buried in the middle of the article pertaining to Geraldo Rivera’s rescue of Floritta Greve from Sunday…(sub/free pass req.)
UPDATE: An FNC exec tells ICN there was only one shoot. Flo forgot her bag and Geraldo and the camera crew took her back to retrieve it. Flo may be on At Large w/ Geraldo this weekend
Geraldo Rivera arrives in a Fox News truck. An elderly woman with blond hair grips his elbow. She’s wearing thick dark glasses and a pink shirt. He carries her small white dog in his arms. He’s wearing thigh-high waders unzipped to below his knees. We shake hands. “Her relative called one of our stations,” Geraldo tells me, explaining how that call went to another station, and then another, and finally to him.
The woman had been stranded in her home for six days. Geraldo picked up the woman and her dog and brought them here. The woman looks frail on his arm, though not as bad perhaps as a lady collapsed on a chair nearby, unable to move. Or a woman in a wheelchair being lifted from the truck, carrying her prosthetic leg on her lap.
“That’s the second time he brought her here,” one of the doctors tells me, nodding toward Geraldo.
“What?”
“They did two takes. Geraldo made that poor woman walk from the Fox News van to the heliport twice. Both times carrying her dog.”
“Are you serious?” I ask. He says he is.
Based on past experience I’m suspicious of Salon, particularly when it comes to their reporting on FNC. I don’t know if this incident actually occured as claimed by them or not (and apparently they did nothing to verify the story). I wonder if it is true, why is it that the footage of this walk from the Fox News van to the heliport was never aired?
Comment by johnny dollar — September 6, 2005 @ 4:10 pm
Good questions. I wish I knew the answers…
Comment by Spud — September 6, 2005 @ 4:17 pm
I got in midway during the conversation between Geraldo and Fox News, and they discussed this rescue. I saw the tape of that rescue later. But I don’t know anything about its being taped twice! Yikes! It seemed heroic to me at the time that I watched the rescue. Beats me!
Comment by Cara — September 6, 2005 @ 5:11 pm
Well that’s the question. They showed footage of Geraldo at her house, and her getting into the boat, but nothing like the footage described in the article. Beats me too!
Comment by johnny dollar — September 6, 2005 @ 5:14 pm
I did see the video of her walking to the helicopter. I was stunned and wished FOX would re-run it. The woman was walking to the right of a man wearing a shirt that said “POLICE.” She was holding his elbow. In his left hand, he carried a bag (her belongings?) and with his left hand had ahold of the leash of her 15+ dog who was limping slowly along. Soon, the dog began tripping and tugging away from the man and eventually fell over and was dragged along the pavement. I thought, OH MY GOSH! Isn’t Geraldo watching as he narrates this? The policeman and the woman never were aware, apparently, of the dog’s distress and eventual collapse. The camera kept filming but FOX inserted some other video in the little box as Geraldo kept talking. I wonder if they made them retape that sequence. But I haven’t seen it replayed.
Comment by Linda — September 6, 2005 @ 6:36 pm
That’s not the footage described they Salon. Salon was talking about footage going from the Fox News van to the heliport. The footage you describe was after that. Geraldo did a live interview with her at the heliport and then she got up and left with the policeman for the helicopter. That was actually broadcast live as it happened.
Comment by johnny dollar — September 6, 2005 @ 7:11 pm
What happened to the dog?! I saw the footage, too, and have been heartbroken and waiting for an update.
Comment by Beth Winkler — September 6, 2005 @ 8:52 pm
The dog’s fine. He’s in a cage at the shelter. Geraldo was on Hannity’s radio program, and he mentioned that someone that the elderly woman knows lives 2 miles away from the shelter that she’s at, and that she has some spare bedrooms (her kids moved out a while ago).
So she’s going to live with her for a while, and there’s a yard so the dog can roam. Geraldo’s going to visit her this weekend, so expect an interview on At Large!
Comment by Charles — September 6, 2005 @ 9:45 pm
Did you see the dog in the footage? Floritta and the other man were walking slowly not paying attention to the dog as it was fighting to get away from it’s leash. At one point you see the dog on it’s side and it’s back being dragged.
Comment by Diane — September 8, 2005 @ 1:54 pm