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Ted Koppel Pens First Piece as 'NY Times' Columnist--Comes Out Swinging
Editor and Publisher ^ | 01/29/06 | E&P Staff

Posted on 01/29/2006 9:20:51 AM PST by Pikamax

Ted Koppel Pens First Piece as 'NY Times' Columnist--Comes Out Swinging

By E&P Staff

Published: January 29, 2006 12:45 AM ET

NEW YORK In his first contribution after being named a New York Times columnist, former ABC newsman Ted Koppel declares, "I cannot help but see that the industry in which I have spent my entire adult life is in decline and in distress."

Koppel raps the new "calculated subjectivity" and forced empathy of cable news, and adds: "The accusation that television news has a political agenda misses the point. Right now, the main agenda is to give people what they want. It is not partisanship but profitability that shapes what you see."

But his view is that journalists "should be telling their viewers what is important, not the other way around. "

In a surprise conclusion, he suggests that perhaps rather than aiming news shows at the disinterested younger segment, the networks should focus on serving older consumers who actually are interested in serious news. (Is there a lesson for newspapers here?)

The goal for the traditional broadcast networks now "is to identify those segments of the audience considered most desirable by the advertising community and then to cater to them," Koppel writes. "Most television news programs are therefore designed to satisfy the perceived appetites of our audiences. That may be not only acceptable but unavoidable in entertainment; in news, however, it is the journalists who should be telling their viewers what is important, not the other way around.

"Indeed, in television news these days, the programs are being shaped to attract, most particularly, 18-to-34-year-old viewers. They, in turn, are presumed to be partly brain-dead — though not so insensible as to be unmoved by the blandishments of sponsors.

"Most particularly on cable news, a calculated subjectivity has, indeed, displaced the old-fashioned goal of conveying the news dispassionately. But that, too, has less to do with partisan politics than simple capitalism." Koppel knocks CNN's new emphasis on journalism-by-empathy, and observes: "Even Fox News's product has less to do with ideology and more to do with changing business models...

"Now, television news should not become a sort of intellectual broccoli to be jammed down our viewers' unwilling throats. We are obliged to make our offerings as palatable as possible. But there are too many important things happening in the world today to allow the diet to be determined to such a degree by the popular tastes of a relatively narrow and apparently uninterested demographic....

"If the network news divisions cannot be convinced that their future depends on attracting all demographic groups, then perhaps, at least, they can be persuaded to aim for the largest single demographic with the most disposable income — one that may actually have an appetite for serious news. That would seem like a no-brainer. "


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: abcnews; broadcastnews; cablenews; histedness; koppel
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To: Pikamax

I've been lost since Ted hasn't been around to tell me what's important.....


41 posted on 01/29/2006 10:31:19 AM PST by clintonh8r (If you don't support the mission you don't support the troops. Period.)
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To: originalbuckeye

I don't remember being aware of media bias until Reagan got elected while I was in grad school. I was shocked. Pleased, but shocked, as the media verdict was there was no way he could be elected. Since then the bias has seemed so obvious. Starting to listen to Rush Limbaugh--just hearing someone speak the truth--was another eye-opening event.


42 posted on 01/29/2006 10:31:31 AM PST by PeoplesRepublicOfWashington (How long do we have to pretend that Democrats are patriots?)
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To: Pikamax

"And now, ABC World News Tonight, sponsored by Metamucil and Depends..."


43 posted on 01/29/2006 10:35:26 AM PST by Tall_Texan (The Democrat Party - emboldened by Hamas to combine terrorism with politics.)
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To: Pikamax
though not so insensible as to be unmoved by the blandishments of sponsors

Leave it to Ted to use a ten-dollar word such as "blandishments" when a more common one would have been more appropriate. Guess that Ted needs to prove to all of the snobs and elitists in the Times Select audience that he is one of them...

44 posted on 01/29/2006 10:36:11 AM PST by Zeppo
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To: Pikamax

[[Ted Koppel declares, "I cannot help but see that the industry in which I have spent my entire adult life is in decline and in distress."]]

What this Alfred E Neuman look alike is saying is that he is pi$$ed because the oldstream media has finally been exposed as the democratic house organ that they have been for the last 50 years and that they are being called on the carpet for it. I will never forget how this fruitcake sucked up to a communist vietnamese farmer and attacked John O'Neil during the Swiftvet interview. I wanted to puke.

Semper Fi'
Jarhead


45 posted on 01/29/2006 10:36:48 AM PST by Buffettfan
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To: PeoplesRepublicOfWashington
I first became aware of media bias during the Vietnam war - thanks to a shortwave radio my dad gave me.

First I'd listen to Voice of America for their war reports -
100 Vietcong killed; 5 Americans killed; 7 American wounded.

Then I'd listen to Radio Moscow or Radio Hanoi -
300 Americans killed, 1 Vietcong scratched a finger.

Finally, I'd listen to the BBC, who would generally fall somewhere in between the other two.


Ever since then, I've done my best to listen and read multiple opposing viewpoint sources and tried to triangulate between then to guess the truth.
46 posted on 01/29/2006 10:38:35 AM PST by lOKKI (You can ignore reality until it bites you in the ass.)
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To: Pikamax
"I cannot help but see that the industry in which I have spent my entire adult life is in decline and in distress."

That's the only thing he got right. He and his elitist pals in the media are the reason why the industry is in decline.

47 posted on 01/29/2006 10:39:12 AM PST by Starboard (Liberal superiorists hate the system that allows average people to make more money than they do.)
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To: Buffettfan
the oldstream media has finally been exposed as the democratic house organ

Yep, its the echo chamber for the Dems.

48 posted on 01/29/2006 10:41:32 AM PST by Starboard (Liberal superiorists hate the system that allows average people to make more money than they do.)
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To: Pikamax
Ted Koppel Pens First Piece as 'NY Times' Columnist--Comes Out Swinging

The short version: Ted misses the old monopoly the hard left had on journalism.

49 posted on 01/29/2006 10:45:25 AM PST by RJL
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To: RJL

You nailed it.


50 posted on 01/29/2006 10:46:50 AM PST by Starboard (Liberal superiorists hate the system that allows average people to make more money than they do.)
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To: Pikamax

An extinct Dinosaur telling Mammels how to survive!

Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters


51 posted on 01/29/2006 10:47:50 AM PST by bray (President Bush Protects America. The Rats Protect Terrorists.)
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To: RJL
The short version: Ted misses the old monopoly the hard left had on journalism.

To paraphrase one of Ted's former colleagues, "that's the way it was".

52 posted on 01/29/2006 10:53:47 AM PST by Starboard (Liberal superiorists hate the system that allows average people to make more money than they do.)
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To: Colonel_Flagg

"I cannot help but see that the industry in which I have spent my entire adult life is in decline and in distress."

What does Ted Toupee call going to Vietnam to bolster Kerry's claims and interviewing commies for his story?


53 posted on 01/29/2006 10:54:09 AM PST by Huevos Rancheros (Free the Barret Report--William B. Travis)
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To: Pikamax
"I cannot help but see that the industry in which I have spent my entire adult life is in decline and in distress."

Yeah Ted, because of you and your ilk! One of the big things that wiped out communism was when the common folk were able to get news about what was really going on instead of the fiction the news-readers told them. Thank Algore for inventing the Internet and thus removing your fecal stain from the airways.
54 posted on 01/29/2006 10:55:37 AM PST by Clay Moore ("My daddy says I'm this close to living in the yard!" Ralph Wiggum)
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To: Pikamax
"Indeed, in television news these days, the programs are being shaped to attract BRAINWASH, most particularly, 18-to-34-year-old viewers. They, in turn, are presumed to be partly brain-dead — though not so insensible as to be unmoved by the blandishments of sponsors.

How stupid does Ted Koppel think Americans are and what they think about his P&M sessions?

55 posted on 01/29/2006 10:58:38 AM PST by Arrowhead1952 (I never got a job from a person on a government program.)
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To: Izzy Dunne
Ted goes ABC to PBS and does editorial for NYTimes.

Simplified... Ted goes DNC to DNC and does editorial for DNC.

56 posted on 01/29/2006 11:01:41 AM PST by johnny7 (“Iuventus stultorum magister”)
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To: johnny7
Ted goes ABC to PBS and does editorial for NYTimes.

Ah yes, the backbone of the liberal media. Where seldom is heard, a discouraging word....about liberals.

57 posted on 01/29/2006 11:04:54 AM PST by Starboard (Liberal superiorists hate the system that allows average people to make more money than they do.)
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To: Pikamax
The logical flaw in Koppel's argument is that the Old Media would not be in a precipitous decline if they gave their audience what it wants.

Instead, Old Media reporters and pundits like Koppel play to their "audience" of company co-workers, pretending to be great propagandists of the past.

Their mission is never perceived to be to report the news but rather to craft a phrase, taint an opponent or omit a fact that will manipulate the public into embracing their left-wing world, company profits be damned.
58 posted on 01/29/2006 11:06:27 AM PST by OESY
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To: OESY
The logical flaw in Koppel's argument is that the Old Media would not be in a precipitous decline if they gave their audience what it wants.

Excellent point.

59 posted on 01/29/2006 11:09:17 AM PST by RJL
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To: Izzy Dunne
And journalists go to importance school so they can know more about what's important than the rest of us, right?

In a national sense, how important do you think the murdered-young-white-female (Natalee Hollaway, Lacie Peterson, etc.) stories Fox covers interminably are?

60 posted on 01/29/2006 11:14:55 AM PST by Amelia (Education exists to overcome ignorance, not validate it.)
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