Was Geraldo's mic cut? There is a rumor Geraldo's mic was cut when Fox News CEO Roger Ailes was angry with Rivera for defending the Obama administration in the days right before the 2012 election. Rumor has it, he ordered Geraldo Rivera's microphone to be cut.

So did Rivera have his mic shut off? A new book claims he did, but it's contradicted with reports by Fox execs and Rivera himself.

Jonathan Alter's new book, "The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies", examines Fox News and their opposition to President Obama and his policies. Alter, a columnist for Bloomberg View, is also a contributor to Fox News competitor MSNBC.

The rumors of Rivera's mic being cut stem from a November 2, 2012, segment on Fox and Friends. In the segment, Rivera had a spat with colleague Eric Bolling, who had accused the Obama administration of lying. Alter claims that Fox News exec Roger Ailes actually came into to the control room and ordered that Geraldo have his microphone shut off.

Rivera himself stepped up to weigh in on the debate. He wrote on the Fox News website, "At no time then or ever has my boss, Roger Ailes, or anyone at Fox News cut my microphone to prevent me from speaking. Not one time, ever. Further, although our executive producer, Bill Shine, says he did tell the morning show producers to move on to another topic, I do not believe the segment was cut any shorter than normal, nor does the tape of the show indicate any audio editing or content censoring took place. It was live TV, raw and unedited."

At the same time, Rivera admits he was angry, writing, "While my appearances on the morning show every Friday for the last 12 years are often noteworthy for their vigorous debate, this confrontation was unusual for its incivility. I was so angry, Steve Doocy, the host sitting alongside me on the curvy couch, had to restrain me physically from leaping to my feet." But Rivera points out, "that night on the "O'Reilly Factor," Bill and I argued over the same point Eric and I had battled over on "Fox & Friends." If Fox News wanted to silence me, they would not have allowed me 12 hours later to say to O'Reilly that we owed the president an apology."

Mediaite also contradicts Alter's account, steering viewers to a video of the November segment that's being debated, showing that while there is a highly audible dip in Rivera's microphone, at no point is he totally cut off. Thus, they claim, Ailes never ordered Geraldo Rivera totally silenced.