80
Friday, March 16, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
TED KOPPEL:
A Warrior in The Wasteland
BY GARY ROSENBLATT
Editor
T
hough he is widely
praised as one of
the nation's finest journal-
ists, Ted Koppel suggests
that he no longer fits the
definition. "I don't perform
as a journalist," says the
host of Nightline, ABC-
TV's late-night news show.
"I don't say it with pride,
but it's true," he noted in
a recent interview.
"It's ludicrous to say I'm a
working journalist. Five
years ago, I was a network
correspondent and I'd do 20
interviews some days at the
State Department in the
hopes that my story would
get 75 to 90 seconds of air
time that evening — if the
President didn't trip or
something. But now I'm the
Queen Bee at the center of
the hive with all of these
drones out there covering
everything for me."
What he is describing is
the setting and format of
Nightline, where Koppel,
43, serves as anchor-mode-
rator-interviewer-in-
quisitor-catalyst of a half-
hour live news program
that is widely acclaimed as
a model of what TV news
can be. And if he sounds a
bit wistful about how he's
managed to achieve one of
the most powerful and gla-
morous positions in broad-
casting, it's because he is,
above all, a realist. Koppel
knows full well the fleeting
nature of fame and the
limitations of quality on
television. Indeed, the topic
he chose to lecture on one
evening at teh Johns
Hopkins University in
Baltimore was television
mediocrity.
"People forget awfully
quickly," he said. "How
many people would recog-
nize Howard K. Smith on
the street today? Or re-
member Edward R. Mur-
row? These men were my
heroes. But once they're off
the air, people forget them."
He is also well aware of
the fact that although
Nightline may reach six
million people a night,
"compared to a show like
Dynasty that may reach
40 million, our audience is
Ted Koppel: "I know about mediocrity. I work in television."
miniscule." He compares
most TV news to potato
chips —"crisp, quick, easy
and not very nourishing."
The setting for our inter-
view is elegant — the for-
mal living room in the man-
sion of the president of Hop-
kins — and Koppel himself
manages to appear digni-
fied without being stuffy.
He is wearing a pair of
jeans (albeit crisp and neat-
ly pressed), a slipover
sports shirt and tweed jack-
et. He sits in an upright
chair, his hands neatly
folded in his lap. The hair?
Yes, the hair is real and as
abundant and well-coiffed
as it appears on TV. (More
than half of Koppel's huge
mail supply deals with his
hair.) He is being inter-
viewed by about 10 repor-
ters, most of them from the
campus newspaper and
radio station. Throughout,
he is composed, forthright,
open and witty — the same
trademarks he displays five
nights a week on the air,
where he manages to com-
bine politeness and aggres-
sion in interviewing heads
of state and other news-
makers.
Koppel gives the im-
pression of a man who truly
appreciates his job. He says
have."
partment. Koppel spent
Still, for all of his power much of the early and mid-
(and he does have more in- 1970s flying around the
fluence and control than world as one of the 14 cor-
any seven o'clock anchor), respondents traveling with
he knows its limitations. Henry Kissinger when he
"There's a paradox about was Secretary of State.
television," he notes. "Any- ("We even printed up but-
one who appears on it as tons once that said 'Free
much as I do has influence, The Kissinger 14.' ")
but the moment you use it,
Though he imitates Kis-
you lose it. If viewers come singer (very well) and des-
to the conclusion that I'm cribes the Kissinger laugh
using the program as a as the same sound a '57
soapbox, I've lost it all."
Chevy makes when start-
Koppel 'acknowledges ing up on a cold morning,
that he has a great many Koppel is an open admirer
personal biases, but "I try to of the controversial states-
control them for that half- man. "He's very smart,
hour every night." He adds mean, tough — and I'm
that he is not a neutral glad he's on our side," says
interviewer. "I frequently Koppel. He says he learned
take points of view, but that a great deal from Kissinger
doesn't mean they're mine. about the nuances of Ian-
My job is to provoke and ' guage. "Contrary to popu-
challenge people, not to lar legend, he does not lie,"
agree with them."
Koppel said, "but he does
Asked about American misdirect awfully well. So I
Jewish perceptions that the learned to listen very care-
media are biased against fully and came to realize
Israel, Koppel, who is Jew- that foreign policy changes
ish but keeps his politics to are made very subtly in
himself, said he is well terms of language, syllable
aware of the situation. "I by syllable."
know it's not much conso-
Koppel noted that TV
lation but the fact is that we news has changed the way
get an equal amount of mail newspapers function in this
and calls" from those who country, that there are
think the media is too pro- more newspapers now than
Israel. He acknowledged there were 30 years ago but
that there is an inherent fewer in major cities. The
bias regarding war cover- emphasis, he says, has
age. "Democracies, like shifted towards local cover-
Israel, always suffer from age. "Newspapers simply
more negative coverage be- cannot beat TV to a break.
cause they are more free ing news story so they've
and open." But, he added had to change." He cited
officials in the Israeli gov- Newsday on Long Island as
ernment and at the Israeli an example of a successful
Embassy in Washington newspaper concentrating
"are very sophisticated and on local coverage. While
well-equipped to make Koppel says that he "scans"
their points, far more than the New York Times, the
he did not want to succeed their Arab counterparts, Washington. Post, Christian
and we do give them a Science Monitor, Wall
the late Frank Reynolds as
anchor of ABC's World chance to respond" to Street Journal and the New
News Tonight, the dinner- compensate for the inequal York Daily News ("it has a
hour news program, and coverage.
great sense of what people
Koppel suggested that care about") every morning
that he's perfectly happy at
Nightline, which he helped the key to interviewing is at his Potomac, Maryland
create four years ago. (For not what you ask, but home, he realizes that up to
the record, he denies that whether or not you listen two-thirds of the American
he was offered the World carefully to the answers. public get all of their news
News anchor and says he "The trick is to really hear from television. It's not
agrees that Peter Jennings
something he gloats about,
is ideal for the job.)
though.
He's just as con-
Koppel compares
"I'm perfectly happy.
cerned about the power of
doing what I'm doing," he most TV news to
television as the rest of us
says. "If someone said, 'Cre- potato chips -
and he discourages his own
ate for yourself a program
four children from watch-
that is the quintessence of "crisp, quick, easy, ing TV by "charging" them
what you would like to do and not very
money to watch. "Charging
— a program with a budget
them a quarter or whatever
sufficient to do anything in nourishing."
to watch at least makes
the world, with a cachet
them make a choice in their
such that anyone would what the response is minds and sometimes
want to appear on it, staffed and pick up on it," he said. they'll opt to read a book,"
by the finest people in the "Too many interviewers he says with obvious satis-
business, with access to simply go through their list faction.
state-of-the-art technology of questions, regardless of
In his lecture that eve-
— a program in which I what the answers are." He ning before an overflow
would have a significant said he honed his listening crowd (literally hun-
input — I would have a skills during his tenure as dreds of people had to be
hard time coming up with ABC's chief diploniatic cor- turned away because the
Continued on Page 56
anything more than I respondent at the State De-