![Former Fox News host Geraldo Rivera trashed his former news home during a CNN interview on Tuesday. [Screenshot CNN]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Screenshot-2023-07-19-at-9.01.19-AM-e1689771748676.png "Former Fox News host Geraldo Rivera trashed his former news home during a CNN interview on Tuesday. [Screenshot CNN]")
Former Fox News host Geraldo Rivera trashed the network during a CNN interview Tuesday.
Rivera announced his departure from Fox News’ top-rated show “The Five” in a June 21 statement, later revealing he was fired. Rivera had been with the network for 23 years.
Rivera said he feels “liberated” and “free at last” after departing the network while on CNN Tonight.
“Did you feel hamstrung there or, muzzled, you know?” host Alisyn Camerota asked.
“Well, I — you know, you are muzzled. Corporate discipline muzzles people, even if, you know, self-muzzlement if that’s a word. I felt — you know, first of all, they denied me permission to go on many shows over the course of my long career there. They have a very rigid, very controlling kind of discipline,” Rivera said.
“But what were they afraid of? I mean, what were they afraid of that they didn’t say?” Camerota asked.
“Oh, my flamboyance and, you know, saying things like I said about the president — former President Trump, you know that he knifed the Constitution in the back. When you have that as your attitude that’s your — you know, position and you’re in a conservative milieu, you know, it’s — it’s pretty noxious to folks who believe a certain way,” Rivera said.
“I am nominally a Republican person, but I’m pro-choice, pro-immigration reform, pro-gun control. I hope to devote a lot of my post career life to working with the developmentally disabled. You know, I have lots of charity work that we do. We’re dating back, you know, half a century to my exposes.” (RELATED: Gutfeld Mocks Geraldo For Spilling Tea About Their ‘Toxic Relationship’)
“It’s a very rigid, very controlled atmosphere, where everyone answers to management, and management doesn’t allow freewheeling. They have a message, they send a talent out to do an interview. If it’s a big story in The New York Times, or this or that, they pick their spot. And they’re very strategic in that regard, very disciplined. Conservatives are much more disciplined than liberals. Liberals are all over the place. You know, like you, you say anything you want.”
Rivera said he also complained about Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson and was suspended for speaking out about Carlson’s Jan. 6 comments. Rivera said the network’s coverage of Jan. 6 was an “embarrassment” and the corporation suffered as a whole.
