How’s the Fit?

It is just hours before air time at the studios of cable network CNBC in early August, and Geraldo Rivera and his small staff of producers are planning this evening’s edition of his nightly talk show, “Rivera Live.” The President Clinton-Monica S. Lewinsky story has become an almost nightly staple of the program, the way the O.J. Simpson trial once was, so it’s not surprising that’s the topic again tonight.

With Clinton’s testimony to the grand jury still two weeks away, Rivera wants to focus on calls by several columnists--including Arianna Huffington, who is booked as a guest--for Clinton to make a mea culpa speech to the nation about his relationship with the former White House intern.

“People don’t understand Clinton can’t do that if he’s facing possible charges of suborning perjury,” Rivera, who was an attorney before he went into TV journalism in 1970, tells his staff. “Get me that Pew [Foundation] poll on the public’s attitudes towards Clinton. Can we get clips of [Richard Nixon’s] ‘Checkers’ speech?”

Then he goes back to working the phones with what he says are high-level sources at the White House. Half an hour before the live telecast of his show at 9 p.m., he bolts out of his office. “It’s a match!” he says, referring to Clinton’s DNA and a stain on Lewinsky’s dress, which is being examined for evidence of a possible sexual encounter between the chief executive and the young woman.

After consulting his notes, Rivera and his producers decide to tone down the initial conclusion he’d jumped to and report simply that “human genetic material” has been found on the garment. A forensics expert who regularly appears on the show is booked at the last minute, and Rivera races to the anchor chair.

“Just half an hour ago, I spoke to one source very close to the president,” Rivera begins portentously, adding that the results are the “most eagerly anticipated DNA results in the history of modern science.”

For the next hour, the guests--from Huffington to former Clinton attorney Lanny Davis--engage in the kind of “what if?” speculation that drives traditionalists crazy about 24-hour talk TV, reacting instantly to Rivera’s single-source report as if it were already known to be true.

After the show, Rivera says he is proud of the story, although some of his producers look nervous about having gone with it. “We wrote it very carefully, and this is a source who has never steered me wrong,” he says.

Elsewhere at NBC News, however, the reaction to this seemingly significant news from one of its highest-paid employees is . . . silence.

NBC News executives put out an internal memo that night telling their bureaus not to report the story, saying that NBC News had not confirmed it.

And in so doing, they exquisitely summed up the dilemma Geraldo Rivera represents for them. Forced by corporate management to bring him into the fold, NBC News would really rather have him play in the minor leagues of CNBC than bring him into the broadcast operation--despite a salary in the $6-million-a-year range that puts Rivera only one tier below “Nightly News” anchor Tom Brokaw.

“Geraldo wanted respect, and that was spelled m-o-n-e-y. He got the money part, but they’re still not giving him the respect,” observes Roger Ailes, the former CNBC president who tried to hire Rivera away for the company he now heads, Fox News Channel. “They’re not really going to let him get anywhere near NBC News.”

When Rivera, the Puerto Rican and Jewish son of New York cafeteria workers, arrived at his third college, the University of Arizona, in 1963, he had the chutzpah (and the naivete) to think he would be accepted there.

“Everybody was wearing khaki pants and madras shirts, and I thought all I had to do was get some Bass weejuns, khaki pants and madras shirts, and I’m gonna fit right in,” recalls Rivera. “What a joke! It became very clear: I would never make it into the fraternity.”

Thirty-five years later, Rivera is still trying to get into the fraternity.

“I’m a newsman, and I’ve resented the fact that there’s CNBC/Geraldo News and NBC News--separate but unequal,” says Rivera, whose talk show has been on the NBC-owned cable channel since 1994. “I’ve wanted the resources--and the respect--of NBC News.”

He got the resources last November. Faced with losing Rivera to the rival Fox all-news cable operation, NBC not only re-signed him to continue “Rivera Live” but also gave him a second daily show on CNBC, “Upfront Tonight,” which he and Diane Dimond will begin anchoring Monday. More significantly, NBC for the first time promised the onetime symbol for “trash TV” entry to the broadcast network under the aegis of NBC News: four prime-time specials a year and regular appearances on the top-rated “Today” show. In exchange, he agreed to give up his 11-year-old syndicated “Geraldo Rivera Show.”

Sources say that Bob Wright, president of NBC, and Jack Welch, chairman of NBC parent company General Electric, effectively mandated that NBC News President Andrew Lack make the deal because “Rivera Live” is CNBC’s highest-rated show (seen by an average of 567,000 homes per night during July) and is credited with turning around the channel’s entire prime-time lineup. Fueled in part by ongoing coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky story, CNBC’s prime-time ratings are up 50% over last year, and the channel is now valued as a $2-billion asset in the GE portfolio.

Nevertheless, many at NBC News remain uncomfortable with Rivera’s feverish style, even though he won grudging praise for his show’s thorough coverage and analysis of the O.J. Simpson trials. Brokaw, sources say, has made it clear that Rivera will not be welcome as a contributor to “NBC Nightly News” and is said to be opposed to having promos for “Rivera Live” or “Upfront Tonight” on NBC’s flagship newscast.

The 55-year-old Rivera both relishes and is bothered by what he calls his “outlaw” status. But he is not modest about his ambitions and he makes no excuses.

“I want to be the anchor for the next millennium,” River declared during a recent interview at the CNBC headquarters across the Hudson River from Manhattan. “I’m still in the running for the center desk of the wise men of my generation.

“Most of my colleagues on the anchor desk--Brokaw, Jennings, Rather--are from a generation before me, even though they’re only a few years older,” Rivera added. “Their president was Eisenhower--mine was Kennedy and Johnson, and Vietnam. I come from a different era. I’m not a preacher, but I’m not afraid to tell viewers where I stand.”

Rivera is unhappy with what he regards as the cold shoulder from some at NBC, particularly Brokaw.

“Katie Couric, Matt Lauer and [“Today” executive producer] Jeff Zucker have been very welcoming. That has not been the case with others there--you can figure out who,” he said. “I’d like for NBC to be proud of the association, to have [NBC News] promos that say, ‘We’re dignified and we’re quirky, we’re ‘Nightly News,’ we’re Rivera, we’re Katie Couric and Matt Lauer, we’re [CNBC host] Chris Matthews and Tim Russert,’ ” Rivera said. “I have a funny feeling I’m not going to see promos like that.”

Asked about Brokaw’s views on having him on “Nightly News,” Rivera added, smiling, “When people make Sherman-esque statements, it generally comes back to haunt them. Why be so absolute?”

Brokaw declined comment. But his associates say that he and others at NBC News have been dismayed by some of Rivera’s recent reporting. Although Rivera has received reluctant praise from some TV critics for his coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky matter (“Like it or not, Rivera is one big reason NBC owns the story like no other news organization,” the New York Observer said), he has been openly partisan in his defense of Clinton, at one point calling Newsweek and the Washington Post “sex-obsessed sister publications” that have been “suckling leaks from the breasts of the likes of Ken Starr.”

In June, Rivera covered Clinton’s trip to China for the “Today” show and was rewarded with an interview with the president that critics said was soft and self-aggrandizing. And in another appearance last month on “Today,” host Couric interrupted Rivera and told him to get back to his role as legal analyst, not “political advisor,” when, during a debate with conservative commentator Laura Ingraham, he seemed to be defending Clinton as an adulterer who should not be hounded from office by independent counsel Starr.

The last straw for some at NBC was when the New York Post, quoting a TV Guide interview with Rivera in which he repeated his interest in being “anchor for the next millennium,” screamed in a headline, “Geraldo shocker: ‘I want Brokaw’s job.’ ”

Rivera says his remarks were taken out of context. “When I talked about being the anchor for the next millennium, I was referring to being on ‘Rivera Live’ and our plans for the kind of show we want to do on ‘Upfront Tonight,’ ” he says.

But the damage was done. “People here are going nuts about this,” one NBC News correspondent who asked to remain anonymous told The Times. “First they said he was going to do specials for prime time, then they said the ‘Today’ show. This from a guy who put fat from his butt on his face [during an infamous on-air episode of Rivera getting cosmetic surgery on his syndicated show]. . . . Did you see the story on ‘Rivera Live’ about the dress? He actually said he wanted to give the president a hug. And now, NBC News is paying Rivera millions of dollars to attack our anchorman? Where is [NBC News management] on this?”

“This is exactly what could have been predicted when he was hired,” said another longtime NBC correspondent who also requested anonymity.

NBC News Vice President David Corvo sought to downplay the controversy. “This is a big place with a lot of room, including some nontraditional journalists, which Geraldo is,” Corvo said. “Geraldo has never asked to be the anchor of ‘Nightly News,’ and we’ve never talked to him about it.”

Some at NBC said that part of the network’s concern about Rivera’s stained-dress story was that it had only one source. But Corvo said NBC News did not report on it because “it needed to be put in context, which it was on ‘Rivera Live.’ Something that explosive, if it were turned into a headline, loses the context Geraldo put it into on his show.” Rivera’s report still has not been confirmed.

Regarding the appearance on “Today” that brought Couric’s chiding, Corvo said, “Geraldo himself has told us it wasn’t his finest hour. . . . He wears a lot of hats, and sometimes it can be tricky differentiating the roles.”

Rivera contends that viewers can figure it out.

“My style of journalism is intensely personal, and I think viewers have an almost visceral connection with me because they’ve seen me long-haired, short-haired, divorced, married, down and back about seven times. . . . I’m an advocate and a commentator and a reporter, but I think people know when I’m stating my opinion. When Linda Tripp says, ‘I am one of you,’ I have to say, ‘Give me a break!’ ”

Nobody at NBC should be surprised by the controversy surrounding Rivera, notes Ed Turner, a former CNN executive vice president who is now senior fellow at the Freedom Forum media studies center in Arlington, Va. “Geraldo is a passionate personality who lives by the dint of expressing his views. He’s good at what he does--but it’s not objective reporting.”

Rivera has commanded attention of one sort or another since a 1972 expose of the Willowbrook school for the retarded in New York City. He went on to become an award-winning reporter for ABC’s “20/20” for eight years, doing stories that ranged from the serious (defective baby formula) to the trashy (a piece on Elvis’ death).

“Geraldo was the original celebrity journalist, making himself the star of the story,” recalls one colleague. “But he worked very hard, and he did a lot of good work.”

He was dismissed by ABC in 1985 following a dispute over an un-aired story on Marilyn Monroe by “20/20” correspondent Sylvia Chase. Rivera publicly criticized ABC News President Roone Arledge for killing the piece because of his friendship with Ethel Kennedy, a charge Arledge denied.

Rivera went off on his own, hosting an infamous syndicated special unveiling the contents of Al Capone’s safe (the vault was empty but the ratings were huge) and launching a syndicated daytime talk show that helped pioneer the tawdry topics and sometimes violent confrontation--he broke his nose during an on-air brawl in 1988--that now dominate the genre. It made him a millionaire but tarnished his reputation as a serious journalist.

“I had a lot of people to support in my family, and nobody else would hire me,” he offers now in explanation.

He admits that he enjoyed it for a long time. But one day, he says, “I looked in the mirror and said, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ ” He toned the show down and, more important, went looking for an outlet where he could be more serious. He approached CNBC about doing a talk show and started “Rivera Live” in 1994. His champion there was Ailes, a former Republican strategist who had produced Rush Limbaugh’s TV talk show before being given the reins at NBC’s cable channel.

“Roger said, ‘You’re trying to change your image? What--you’re going to give me an hour of Chinese porcelain painting?’ ” Rivera recalls, laughing.

Ailes enjoyed doing battle with his former employer in trying to win Rivera’s services last year. NBC had let its “window” lapse in Rivera’s contract, and Ailes stepped in with an offer to anchor a nightly newscast in addition to “Rivera Live” on Fox News Channel, with specials on the Fox TV network thrown in. Rivera had accepted when word of it leaked to the press.

“Bob Wright called me and said, ‘What’s the problem?’ ” Rivera says. He told the NBC president of such slights as “NBC Nightly News” promoting the Simpson coverage on the company’s MSNBC cable channel, but not on “Rivera Live,” and of being offered specials by the entertainment division but not by the news division.

NBC had the contractual right to match any offer Rivera received. It did so quickly.

“He did seem motivated to get together,” Rivera says wryly of the negotiations with news division president Lack. But Rivera adds seriously, “I was very pleased when Andy said he wanted me to be part of NBC News. He told me the sticking point was that I had to give up my syndicated talk show.”

Rivera maintains that mainstream TV news has moved toward him rather than the other way around.

“I haven’t changed--TV news has changed,” he says. “Who would have thought you’d have stories about an alleged semen-stained dress on the front page of the New York Times? . . . I’m as tabloid as ‘Nightline.’ They did O.J. and Tammy Faye Bakker, and they’ve done a lot on the Lewinsky story.”

With network TV newsmagazines, in particular, going after more tabloid subjects and stories full of emotion, some people smell hypocrisy in the stance of some within NBC. “They’re doing ‘A Current Affair’ with Jane Pauley and Stone Phillips on ‘Dateline NBC,’ ” Ailes maintains.

Rivera acknowledges that White House sources have opened up to him since his defense of Clinton. “It’s inevitable that reporters who take a certain angle will have more access to people benefited by their presentation,” he says. “But we’ve had all sides presented on our show.”

Lewinsky is likely to be a topic on the new “Upfront Tonight” as well as on “Rivera Live.” But Rivera and his producers say that the half-hour show will include investigative stories and other reported pieces plus talk about the main story of the day.

His first prime-time special for the broadcast network, scheduled to air next month, will examine relations between police and African American communities.

Will he eventually get the respect he craves from traditional broadcast news, specifically at NBC? “I’m waiting to see,” he replies. “A lot will depend on how NBC promotes and treats ‘Upfront Tonight.’ I’ve got a six-year, no-cut contract and a lot of air time, so I shouldn’t be whining. But I don’t think I’m going to get a call to take a penthouse suite at 30 Rock [Rockefeller Plaza, NBC’s New York address] any time soon.”

*

“Rivera Live” airs weeknights at 6 and 9 p.m.; “Upfront Tonight” will be seen at 4:30 and 11:30 p.m., both on CNBC.