TV News Review

A few weeks ago, Geraldo Rivera was doing a report on Lisa Novak, the astronaut arrested for attempted kidnapping among other things. During the report Geraldo repeatedly referred to Ms Novak as the “astronut”. He appeared to be doing it by accident and even apologized for it. Over the past few days I’ve heard several other anchors, one on Fox News and the other on MSNBC, refer to her as the “astronut”. That’s just not right. As reporters, their job is to report the story. Calling her an “astronut” is cruel, it’s not appropriate in the reporting of a news story. Cut it out guys. Maybe she is struggling with a mental illness. But, making fun of the mentally ill isn’t appropriate anywere. It’s certainly not appropriate for a network news anchor to make fun of her. They should report the facts.