In a series of tweets this afternoon, Fox News anchor Geraldo Rivera lamented the recent spate of high-profile sexual harassment cases and, at least in the case of Matt Lauer, seemed to support the accused.
“News is a flirty business & it seems like current epidemic of #SexHarassmentAllegations may be criminalizing courtship & conflating it w predation,” he wrote in his first of 5 tweets on the topic, which has gotten nearly 5,000 comments, few supportive.
“This issue is so red hot right now there is no room for any thought or opinion but hang em high,” he wrote, adding, “If News wasn’t (formerly) a flirty biz then how do we explain so many newsroom courtships that have led to happy marriages?”
“Geraldo’s tweets do not reflect the views of FOX News or its management,” Fox News said in a statement. “We were troubled by his comments and are addressing them with him.”
Update: In a tweet sent just after 10 p.m., Rivera apologized:
Reaction to my tweets today on #sexharassment makes clear
I didn’t sufficiently explain that this is a horrendous problem
long hidden-Harassers are deviants who deserve what is coming
to them-Often victims are too frightened to come
forward in a timely fashion-I humbly apologize— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 30, 2017