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March 25, 2022 • Schneps Media
TVG
NEW YORKER of the WEEK
Geraldo Rivera
Reflecting on Willowbrook’s legacy and his impactful reporting
BY ALAN KRAWITZ
Award-winning journalist Geraldo
Rivera has seemingly done it all in
his 45-year career as a TV reporter
and media personality. But when it comes
to what he would like to be remembered
most for, the answer was easy.
“Willowbrook is one of the most important
stories of my life … the memory of it
haunts me, my entire identity is connected
to it,” he said.
In 1972, Rivera — then a reporter for
WABC-TV — snuck cameras inside Willowbrook
State School on Staten Island
toexpose its deplorable conditions, which
included abuse and shocking neglect.
Willowbrook State School at the time
was the largest institution in the nation
serving children with developmental disabilities.
Rivera’s report would ultimately
force the school’s closure and led Victoria
Schneps, whose daughter was a Willowbrook
resident, to found the nonprofit
Life’s WORC organization in response to
the ensuing scandal. The group would go
on to open more than 50 group homes
across Long Island and New York City.
“I met Vicki (Schneps) in January of
1972,” recalled Rivera, calling her a seminal
figure and comparing her to American
civil rights activist Ralph Abernathy for
her dedication to the disabled community.
“Vicki understood the need to shine a
spotlight on the issues of how residents
were being treated,” he added.
The most shocking thing Rivera experienced
was not only the “horror of the
living conditions of the Willowbrook residents,”
but also that it was happening in
New York City, and not some “third-world
country or the deep south of the 1950s…
but New York City in the 1970s.”
Rivera recalls his Willowbrook broadcast
as akin to a “seismic blast” that
shocked people’s consciousness.
Reflecting on how care for the developmentally
disabled has changed since Willowbrook,
Rivera says “it’s like night and
day,” adding that care is vastly better now
with the advent of the use of communitybased
residences. Life’s WORC named its
first group home after Rivera in 1977.
“In the old days, developmentally disabled
kids and adults lived in grim, overcrowded
conditions where they were kind
of warehoused in dangerous conditions
where life expectancies were very low,
sometimes in the early 20s or so,” he
said.“Now, four or five generations later,
the disabled are able to live their best
possible lives, given their particular challenges.”
Rivera says he’s heartened that there’s
now recognition that a more humane
approach to disability care is the norm:
“There’s been a sea change in the standards
of care for people with developmental
disabilities.”
“Things have changed so much. Back
then, the disabled had no constitutional
rights,” adding that the road to hell was
paved with “opportunism and political
calculation, dishonesty and secrecy.”
He praised Life’s WORC and said with
Vicki (Schneps’) lead, they were able to
show that there’s a less expensive, far
more humanistic approach to dealing
with the disabled.
“Life’s WORC has shown that group
homes can be good neighbors.” In 2015,
Rivera was a contestant on the reality
show “Celebrity Apprentice”, and he
won $725,000 which he donated to Life’s
WORC. In addition, for the past 33 years
Rivera has hosted the Geraldo Rivera
Golf Classic, which helps to raise significant
funds for the organization.
Talking about his extensive and public
career, Rivera says he hopes people don’t
remember the “caricature” of his public
life, such as “brawls with skinheads,
opening Al Capone’s vault…not the silly
stuff.”
“I’d like to be known as one of the first
consumer reporters, who basically invented
the ‘on your side’ type of reporting.”
Rivera also took cameras to places
they’ve never gone before, recalling reporting
on things including the 1970s
heroin epidemic, exploring “drug shooting
galleries,” andcovering most world
conflicts since 1973, from the Yom Kippur
War to conflicts in Chile, Afghanistan,
Iraq, the Middle East, and Somalia.
“I’ve basically been to hotspots all around
the world.”
As a reporter, he says his greatest
achievements were not only to expose
what was wrong but also to advocate for
a solution.
“It’s easy to show what’s wrong, but
much harder to find a practical solution,”
he says, adding that too much reporting is
focused on complaining without activism.
On the lighter side, Rivera says that
being friends with so many entertainers
helped him chronicle pop-culture of various
eras from the days of Studio 54, to
“hanging out with John Lennon and John
Denver.”
Commenting on the state of journalism
today, Rivera says he thinks that while
network news is largely partisan — with
outletssuch as CNN or MSN being more
liberal and Fox News being more conservative
—local news does an excellent job
in itscoverage.
Currently, Rivera is a rotating co-host
on the Fox News Channel’s The Five occupying
the “liberal” seat while he also
provides regular reports and commentary
on FNC’s Fox and Friends, Hannity, and
other programs.
For any students looking to make journalism
a career, Rivera advises “Go into it
with energy and optimism and idealism.
Don’t get into it looking to be a star.”
Rivera will be honored for his decadeslong
contributions to Life’s WORC, which
include numerous fundraisers, golf tournaments,
concerts and other events at the
upcoming 50th Anniversary Gala scheduled
for April 1 at The Garden City Hotel.
The organization will also honor Victoria
Schneps-Yunis, who’s also founding
president of Schneps Media.
REUTERS/SHANNON STAPLETON
Geraldo Rivera