Sally Jesse & Geraldo Rivera join NewsNation with Elizabeth Vargas to discuss how Phil Donahue affected their careers.
Phil Donahue passed away on August 18th at the age of 88.
August 20th, 2024
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Read about Phil Donahue on Wikipedia.
Partial transcript
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“Former talk show host Sally Jessy Rafael and NewsNation correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera both told me about how important Donahue was for their careers. They both join me now to remember him. Geraldo, you said today that he was the most important talk show host ever. Why?”
GR: “Well he invented the genre. As you correctly point out and as the obituaries are making clear he was the first one that recognized that the home audience, the audience at home during the day, the caregivers, the homemakers, were interested in the world, that they had very serious notions..”
“And not mindless stuff.”
GR: “Not mindless stuff. The fun stuff also, as the montage makes clear. He really, the the issues, civil rights, women’s rights, consumer protection, interviews with JFK, with Malcom X, what can I say….Donahue really was that person who brought that to the home audience.”
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