Ted Koppel, Bad Reporter

[Klukie]

ABC News veteran Ted Koppel ladles out self-serving news nostalgia in the Washington Post.
By Jack Shafer


I know of no more sorry a spectacle than the wizened newsman weeping with nostalgia for the golden age of journalism—which just happens to coincide with his own glory days.

Ted Koppel sobbed this eternal lament in the Washington Post Outlook section on Sunday, Nov. 14, in a piece titled "The Case Against News We Can Choose." His news peg? The 2-second suspension served by MSNBC Countdown anchor Keith Olbermann after Politico reported that he had violated company policy with his campaign contributions.

This isn't the first time Koppel has complained about the ruination of TV news by the cable channels. In 2006, he penned a similar op-ed in the New York Times upon leaving ABC News after working there for 42 years. In both the Post and Times pieces, he accuses the cable networks of giving audiences what they want instead of what they need to know because it's the best way to secure advertising profits. Such profit-pandering was unlikely in the 1960s, he writes in the Post, because network TV news "operated at a loss or barely broke even," a fulfillment of the "FCC's mandate" that broadcasters "work in the 'public interest, convenience and necessity.' "

http://www.slate.com/id/2274927/

[MinM]

1. Koppel's coming up on NPR: Talk of the Nation

In the 2PM ET hour. Should be interesting. :radio: :popcorn:

[MinM]

6. Koppel coming up on NPR: Talk of the Nation

Correction. Apparently in the 3PM ET hour.

[MinM]

2. Newsweek noted a basic disparity between the image and function of Ted Koppel

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=525718&mesg_id=525986

[MinM]

3. Ted Koppel's incessant praise of Rush Limbaugh

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=525718&mesg_id=525989

[CRH]

4. Kopple was a fraud posing as a left of center journalist, ...

I will never forget the night in early 2004 when he tried to frame the candidate field in a primary debate rather than framing the issues. He said Kucinich, Sharpton and Braun were running vanity campaigns and wondered when they would be dropping out so others might field more questions. He was intentionally trying to move the candidate field to the center by dismissing with derision the candidates left of center. That night I lost all respect for Ted Kopple, the want to be voice of the left.

Kucinich got the last word that night in form of an audience ovation, when he replied to Kopple; ... It is your job to frame the debate, not the candidate field.

[Ron Green]

5. When "Nightline" became a brand in 1979 on the heels of the Iran hostage event,

Koppel realized he could be a whore and still call himself a journalist.

[Raine]

7. THANKS to Koppel's "America Held Hostage Day (whatever)"

we lost Jimmy Carter and ended up with that horrid Raygun ... I can't stand Koppel, yeah he's a total whore. :mad: