This Ain't Nightline

Slate ^ | 1/30/2006 | Jack Shafer

[wjersey]

It's not Ted Koppel's fault that the New York Times has made him a Times contributing columnist. As Koppel writes in yesterday's (Jan. 29) debut column, "And Now, a Word from Our Demographic," the invitation came from an "editor friend of mine," so the fault belongs to whomever assigned, accepted, and edited or rewrote Koppel's self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, late-to-the-party, and punishingly obvious 1,500-word piece about the state of television news. (It's bad.) It's not even Koppel's fault if he thinks he's any good at this columnist thing, when he isn't. If we were to belittle every person who stretched his talents until they pop, we'd have little time for anything else.

So, my critique isn't personal, it's institutional. Based on what did the Times think Koppel could write a compelling newspaper column? Did they not see disaster in this piece?

[Richard Kimball]

Pretty scathing attack on Koppel, and accurate. Thanks for posting.

[jocon307]

"That's not my recollection of what sort of product the news divisions of CBS, NBC, and ABC turned out decades ago. Then as now, the news divisions took as their marching orders the accounts they'd read in the morning's New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal and bustled out to find pictures and graphics to go with them."

Amen, a great pan! Thanks for posting this.

[wouldntbprudent]

When Koppel laments the fact that cable, satellite, and broadband have "overcrowded" the marketplace, making it "increasingly vulnerable to the dictatorship of the demographic"—that is, readers and viewers deciding what they want to consume rather than what the three broadcast networks think they should—he sounds like any other monopolist complaining about how the arrival of competition has dragged down quality. Is it a genuine disaster for the commonweal if the broadcast networks no longer operate fully staffed foreign bureaus in Vienna when readers and viewers, thanks to the Internet and cable and satellite TV, can consume timely newspapers accounts and broadcast reports from around the world? Who among us suffers because Pierre Salinger no longer files dispatches from his Parisian hotel room?

[TexanToTheCore]

Koppel has been the Master of the Obvious for many years, which is why I stopped watching Nighline more than a decade ago. To think he will do anything different in print is risible.

[wouldntbprudent]

okay, Slate laid out the challenge. This should be fun:

Think I'm kidding about Koppel's writing? If you have an Amazon account, click here for a random page from Off Camera. Send the most banal lines you find to slate.pressbox@gmail.com. (E-mail may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

[Izzy Dunne]

Think I'm kidding about Koppel's writing? If you have an Amazon account, click here for a random page from Off Camera. Send the most banal lines you find to slate.pressbox@gmail.com (E-mail may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)

[IronJack]

Who among us suffers because Pierre Salinger no longer files dispatches from his Parisian hotel room?

There's another pompous windbag masquerading as a journalist. Not a one of these mannequins deserves to be called a "newsman." In fact, I can't think of many newspaper writers who deserve that (formerly) noble title.

[Socratic]

...the fault belongs to whomever assigned, accepted, and edited or rewrote Koppel's self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, late-to-the-party, and punishingly obvious 1,500-word piece about the state of television news.

Pot, meet kettle. A dependent clause can be the object of a preposition and the clause, itself, can have a subject. Example: whoever. Just yesterday, I spotted the same mistake by another columnist. I learned basic grammar in grades 6 through 8 and marvel that so-called professionals can be so ignorant.

[Malcolm]

I don't have a lot of respect for any ultraleftist journalist, but I lost any that I had for Koppel when in the 80s he was at a public forum and a young man complained about media bias and exaggerations, Koppel replied, "then what are you doing here?" LOL, a Lloyd Benson comeback like that is cheap and doesn't answer the question the young man asked. The ultraleftists are hypocritical and full of B.S., plus they're intolerably self-important.

For an example, check out Cooper Anderson on CNN; LOL, I've never seen a anyone that looked that stupid and actually was. He makes Koppel almost look cerebral by comparison...

[TexanToTheCore]

I stopped watching Nightline the night of the flyby of Uranus. I tuned in expecting to see wonderful pictures of a truly unknown planet.

Ted's story was on Malcolme Forbes' 2 million dollar birthday party!

I decided that Old Ted was an airhead who couldn't figure out what was news and what wasn't. Never tuned back in.