Ted Koppel. Made famous for his nightly Iran Hostage Crisis created by his idol Jimmah.
And Ted got the gig only because the original anchor, Frank Reynolds, asked for a night off. He was anchoring both World News Tonight and the “America Held Hostage” special reports and didn’t want to come back to the studio for another late-night segment. Koppel had been demoted from anchor of ABC’s weekend evening newscasts and wasn’t doing much, so he got the fill-in job.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Frank Reynolds passed away from hepatitis and cancer in 1983. Ronald and Nancy Reagan attended his funeral. Mr. Reynolds became close to the Reagans while covering the 1976 presidential campaign. I have no illusions that Reynolds wasn’t a liberal, but he was very much a fair journalist who didn’t hold conservatives in open contempt, like most of his latter-day counterparts.
Mr. Reynolds’ son, Dean, worked as a correspondent at ABC for many years before joining CBS. If you watch his work, you’ll see the younger Reynolds inherited none of his father’s journalistic values.
In my mind, I can still see the nightly splash showing the count of days the hostages were held. Koppel created a long lasting nightly news program as well as a career for himself with this. I guess he can't be all bad since his daily focus on the hostage issue was a major factor in Carter's loss.