Welcome back, Koppel.

October 17th, 2011 by Martine St-Victor


I don’t remember the first time I watched Nightline but I remember it was the late eighties. I liked Ted Koppel as much as I did Simon Lebon. Because like Lebon, Koppel was the leader of a cool band. The Nightline band. He was a tad regal & Nightline was a bit like the Improv of news. Guests were often difficult to wrangle and never hesitated to pick fights with Koppel. Newsmakers, unscripted.

I’ve complained before about Nightline’s new format and about ABC deciding to give more night time to entertainment than to news. Cue-in Jimmy Kimmel.

Koppel has himself complained about the state of news today, recently in this Washington Post op-ed. Although I agree with him on certain points, the reality is the world has changed and so has the way we report it. Still, I have missed his style of journalism. Koppel is a raconteur, a foot soldier for truth without fanfare, like fellow contemporaries Dan Rather & David Frost who I also wish to see more of on the tube.

For now, I rejoice knowing Koppel will be back as of month end on NBC’s new news magazine “Rock Center”, hosted by Brian Williams. Merry Christmas, news fiends.



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