Daily Inspiration Quote by Geraldo Rivera

Rivera’s line is a neat reversal of the applause track that often accompanies “brave” journalism. In most newsrooms, the safest posture is moral certainty with a crowd behind you: condemning an obvious villain, platforming a broadly shared outrage, chasing the consensus story that guarantees clicks, awards, and colleagues’ nods. By defining courage as “sticking up for the unpopular,” he’s attacking that comfort. The sentence is built on a blunt antithesis - unpopular vs. popular - that exposes how easily the industry confuses heat with risk.

The intent is partly self-justifying and partly accusatory. Rivera’s career has lived in the contested space between crusading reporter, television showman, and tabloid-adjacent provocateur. In that context, “unpopular” functions as a shield and a dare: a defense of taking positions that invite backlash, and a challenge to journalists who mistake majority sentiment for moral clarity. The subtext is that journalism’s real power test isn’t whether you can puncture the powerful (often celebrated) but whether you can preserve fairness when the subject is someone viewers and editors already want to hate.

It also hints at a more uncomfortable truth: “sticking up for” can sound like advocacy, not scrutiny. Rivera is gambling that audiences will hear principle, not contrarianism. The quote works because it names a pressure journalists rarely admit in public - that reputational safety often lies in telling people what they already believe, and calling it bravery.