Ted Koppel

Edward James Martin Koppel (born February 8, 1940) is a British-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for Nightline, from the program's inception in 1980 until 2005.

Ted Koppel
Ted Koppel in December 2017
Born
Edward James Martin Koppel[1]

(1940-02-08) February 8, 1940
Nelson, Lancashire, England
EducationSyracuse University (BS)
Stanford University (MA)
OccupationJournalist, news anchor, author
Years active1963–present
Known forNightline (1980–2005)
Spouse(s)Grace Anne Dorney (1962-present)
Children4
Parent(s)Alice Koppel
Edwin Koppel

Before Nightline, he spent twenty years as a broadcast journalist and news anchor for ABC. After becoming host of Nightline, he was regarded as one of the most "outstanding" of the serious-minded interviewers on American television. Five years after its 1980 debut the show had a nightly audience of some seven and a half million viewers.[2]

After leaving Nightline, Koppel worked as managing editor for the Discovery Channel, a news analyst for NPR and BBC World News America and a contributor to Rock Center with Brian Williams. Koppel is currently a special contributor to CBS News Sunday Morning. His career as foreign and diplomatic correspondent earned him numerous awards, including nine Overseas Press Club awards and twenty-five Emmy Awards.

Early life and education

Koppel, an only child, was born in Nelson, England. His parents, German Jews, had fled Germany after the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism.[3] In Germany, Koppel's father had operated a tire-manufacturing company. To help the British economy, the Home Secretary invited him and his wife to move the factory to Lancashire, England, where, he was promised, they would be protected in the event of war.[3] They moved the factory there in 1936; but, when war broke out in Europe, in 1939, he was instead declared an enemy alien and imprisoned on the Isle of Man for a year and a half.[3]

Koppel was born in 1940, shortly after his father was taken away. For income, his mother sold her personal jewelry and did menial work in London to provide for her infant son.[3] When his father was released, he still was not permitted to work in England, nor would he allow his wife to work. In the years after the war ended, they gained some money from their confiscated assets and decided to leave for the United States.[3] While in England, Ted Koppel was a pupil at Abbotsholme School, in Derbyshire. In 1953, when he was 13, the family emigrated to the United States,[3] where his mother, Alice, became a singer and pianist, and his father, Edwin, opened a tire factory.[4] Koppel says "they came here because they believed the opportunities for me would be better in America."[3] Koppel's boyhood hero was radio broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, whose factual reports during the bombings of London inspired him to want to become a journalist.[5]

After attending the McBurney School, a private preparatory institution in New York,[6] Koppel attended Syracuse University, from which he graduated at age 20 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He was a member of the Alpha Chi chapter of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. His roommate recalls that Koppel "was incredibly focused and had a photographic memory. He remembers almost every conversation he ever had with anybody. And the man never needs sleep."[7]

Koppel then went to Stanford University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in mass-communications research and political science.[8] While at Stanford, he met his future wife, Grace Anne Dorney.[3]

Career

News correspondent
Koppel as the diplomatic correspondent for ABC News, 1976.

Koppel had a brief stint as a teacher before being hired as a copyboy at The New York Times and as a writer at WMCA Radio in New York. In June 1963, he became the youngest correspondent ever hired by ABC Radio News, working on the daily Flair Reports program. As a result of his covering the Kennedy assassination in 1963 with Charles Osgood, the national news audience took notice of him.[3] He was scheduled to do a short report, but a delay during the crisis forced him to ad-lib for an hour and a half.[5]

In 1964, he covered his first of many presidential nominating conventions. He also began covering the civil rights movement in Selma, Alabama. ABC officials were impressed by Koppel's ability to clarify issues using plain language.[5] Starting in 1966, he was made the ABC News correspondent during the Vietnam War, and it was during that period he changed from broadcasting over radio to doing so on national television.[3] He accepted the assignment only after the network agreed to send his wife and their two children to Hong Kong so they could be nearby.[3] Before going he took a course to learn the Vietnamese language.[3]

He returned in 1968 to cover the campaign of Richard Nixon, before becoming Hong Kong bureau chief, and U.S. State Department correspondent where Koppel formed a friendship with Henry Kissinger.[3] According to Nixon assistant John Ehrlichman, Koppel's friendship with Kissinger was partly due to their similar backgrounds, as they both had Jewish parents who were refugees from Hitler, and both emigrated to America in their youth.[3]

Koppel was among those traveling to China with U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1972. He spoke about this with the USC U.S.-China Institute for their Assignment: China documentary series on American media coverage of China.[9] Koppel likened the trip to a "journey to the dark side of the moon." By 1975, he was anchoring ABC Evening News on Saturdays, and he continued to file reports for ABC Radio.[10]

Koppel would often report on the State Department's foreign conferences, as when he traveled with Kissinger during his meetings in Egypt and Israel in 1975.[3] He said about Kissinger: "I have a high regard for Henry. He has a first-class mind. A half hour with him gives me a better insight into a foreign policy question than hours with others."[3]

In the mid-1970s, Koppel took a year off from his news anchor position to stay home with his children so that his wife could complete her education at Georgetown Law School. That decision by Koppel upset ABC News president Roone Arledge, who then dropped Koppel as news anchor when he returned to the network.[7]

In April 1979, he was lead reporter for an eleven-segment series, "Second to None?", which focused on explaining the dangers of nuclear war. He did his own research and wanted to present "complex material to an audience that hasn't paid much attention in the past but must in the future ... if there is to be a future."[5] For the series he received an Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award.[5]

Nelson Mandela interview

In 1990, Koppel interviewed Nelson Mandela in a US-style town hall meeting situation.[11]

Host of Nightline

Koppel became known for his work as the host of a late night news program called Nightline. The program originated as a series of special reports about the 444-day-long Iran hostage crisis, during which Iranian militants held 52 Americans captive, beginning in early November 1979. At first, the program was called The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage, and was hosted by Frank Reynolds. Koppel eventually joined Reynolds as co-anchor. In March 1980, the program evolved into Nightline, with Koppel as its host.[12] In 1990, ABC News ran a one-hour special called "The Best of Nightline with Ted Koppel."[13] Koppel spent twenty-five years anchoring the program, before leaving ABC (and leaving as host of Nightline) in late November 2005.[14]

While hosting Nightline, Koppel also hosted a series of special programs called Viewpoint, beginning in 1981, which provided media criticism and analysis. It was envisioned by ABC News Vice President George Watson as a way to address any media bias that viewers might believe that they encountered on the network. Broadcast before a live audience, it provided viewers with a chance to question how stories were reported or critique television news.[15] Viewpoint was broadcast sporadically, from 1981 until 1997.

Some liberal groups suggested that Koppel was a conduit for the government's point of view and accused him of favoring conservatives when selecting guests.[16] In the late 1980s, the progressive media criticism organization Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) claimed that policymakers and ex-officials dominated the Nightline guest list, with critics of foreign policy less visible. In 1987, Newsweek called him the "quintessential establishment journalist". Koppel responded that "We are governed by the president and his cabinet and their people. And they are the ones who are responsible for our foreign policy, and they are the ones I want to talk to".[17]

Controversy regarding Nate Thayer

According to Nate Thayer, the journalist writing for the Far Eastern Economic Review who interviewed Pol Pot shortly before Pol Pot's death, Ted Koppel of ABC News made a verbal agreement with Thayer to use footage from the trial on Nightline and then violated that agreement.[18] Nate Thayer later became the first journalist to refuse a Peabody prize and has spoken negatively many times about his experience of dealing with Koppel.

Departure from Nightline
Ted Koppel at the 62nd Annual Peabody Awards

On November 22, 2005, Koppel stepped down from Nightline after 25 years with the program and left ABC after 42 years with the network. His final Nightline broadcast did not feature clips highlighting memorable interviews and famous moments from his tenure as host, as is typical when an anchor retires. Instead, the show replayed an episode of Nightline with Koppel's 1995 interviews with retired Brandeis University sociology professor Morrie Schwartz, who was dying of Lou Gehrig's disease.[19]

Koppel in 2008

Following Nightline Koppel has taken on a number of roles which span various formats of news media:

  • He signed up as an opposite editorial-contributing columnist, effective January 29, 2006, for The New York Times,[20]
  • Starting in June 2006, he provided commentary to Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Day to Day on National Public Radio, joining NPR's other two Senior News Analysts, Cokie Roberts and Daniel Schorr.[21] As such, he participated in the annual NPR Fourth of July reading of the Declaration of Independence in 2007. Koppel ended his regular commentary on NPR in April 2008, and last appeared as a news analyst on the network in 2014.[22]
  • Koppel made occasional guest appearances on The Daily Show appearing in extreme close-up as a disembodied head, acting as Jon Stewart's journalistic conscience, sometimes as the replacement for the so-called "Giant Head of Brian Williams" projected on the screen behind Stewart. Koppel has jokingly insisted that "this is the actual size of [Koppel's] head"
  • Koppel worked for BBC World News America as a "contributing analyst" covering the 2008 Republican National Convention and the 2008 Democratic National Convention[23] and hosted a special edition of the program in 2011.[24]
  • On December 12, 2011, Koppel made his first appearance on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams as a reporter. He would later become a special correspondent for NBC's Rock Center until the show's cancellation.
  • On August 6, 2013, The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece by Koppel entitled "America's Chronic Overreaction to Terrorism".[25]
  • In 2015 Koppel published the book, Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, about the potential of a major cyberattack on America's power grid.[26]
  • Since March 2016 Koppel has served as a special contributor to CBS Sunday Morning.[27]
  • On March 24, 2020, Koppel made a guest appearance on Nightline to mark the program's 40th anniversary, discussing how he and his wife had been coping with the COVID-19 pandemic.[28]

Discovery Channel

Following his departure from Nightline Koppel formed a three-year partnership with Discovery Communications as managing editor of the Discovery Channel. While at Discovery, Koppel produced several lengthy documentaries on a variety of subjects including a 2008 four-hour miniseries on China, which Koppel "ranks with some of the work that [he is] most proud of over the years."[29] The four-part documentary, called The People's Republic of Capitalism, is an extensive look at the fast-changing country. It takes a look at the role of Chinese consumers in the growing yet communist economy.[30]

Koppel and Discovery Communications parted ways in November, 2008, terminating their contract six months early, prompting rumors that Koppel would be hired for NBC's Meet the Press. Koppel stated that he was not interested in the job.[29]

Honors and awards

Koppel returns to Syracuse University regularly as a guest speaker. He was a member of the student-run WAER and keeps in touch with the student media at Syracuse.[37] He is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.[38]

Emmy Awards
  • He has won 25 Emmy Awards, including:[31]
  • 1987 - Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story - Programs (Nightline)
  • 1999 - Outstanding Investigative Journalism - Programs (Nightline)
  • 1999 - Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story - Programs (Nightline)
  • 2004 - Outstanding Feature Story in a News Magazine (Nightline)
  • 2007 - Lifetime Achievement Award [39]

Personal life

In 1962, Koppel became a naturalized citizen of the United States and married Grace Anne Dorney.[40]

They have four children: Andrea (a former journalist), Deirdre, Andrew, and Tara. Andrew Koppel was found dead in an apartment in New York City on May 31, 2010, reportedly after a day-long drinking binge; a post mortem toxicology report identified illicit drugs.[41]

Koppel speaks German and French, in addition to his native English.

He is a longtime friend of Henry Kissinger. Both of them moved to the United States as children. Along with former Secretary of State Alexander Haig, Kissinger was the most frequent guest on Nightline.[17] In an interview, Koppel commented, "Henry Kissinger is, plain and simply, the best secretary of state we have had in 20, maybe 30 years – certainly one of the two or three great secretaries of state of our century," and added, "I’m proud to be a friend of Henry Kissinger. He is an extraordinary man. This country has lost a lot by not having him in a position of influence and authority".[42]

In 1993, Koppel and his wife paid $2.7 million for 16 acres overlooking the Potomac River in Potomac, Maryland.[43] They sued to hold their neighbors to an agreement to limit the size of the houses in the neighborhood to 10,000 sq ft (930 m2).[43]

See also

References
  1. Vanity Fair. 1994. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
  2. "Meet Mr. Perfect of television news," The Washington Post, April 6, 1985
  3. John Ehrlichman. "Why We Stay Up for Ted Koppel." Parade Magazine, September 27, 1987, pp. P18, 20-21.
  4. "Ted Koppel Biography (1940–)". Filmreference.com. Retrieved 2010-07-18.
  5. Moritz, Charles. editor, Current Biography Yearbook, 1984, The H. W. Wilson Co., N.Y. (1984) pp. 216-220
  6. Dan Nimmo and chevelle Newsome. Political Commentators in the United States in the 20th Century. Greenwood Press, 1997, p. 151.
  7. "The Real King of Late Night", The Washington Post, June 12, 1996
  8. "Ted Koppel". ABC News. November 17, 2005. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
  9. "Assignment: China - The Week that Changed the World | US-China Institute". China.usc.edu. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
  10. "The Ted Koppel Collection." Syracuse University Library, Special Collections.
  11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryO3En-zG68
  12. "Ask the Globe." Boston Globe, April 28, 1988, p. 52.
  13. "The Best of Nightline with Ted Koppel", 1 hour
  14. Mark Jurkowitz. "Koppel to Leave Nightline and ABC News." Boston Globe, April 1, 2005, p. D5.
  15. Judy Flander. "Ted Koppel to Moderate 'Viewpoint.'" Chicago Tribune, August 12, 1982, Section 4, p. 11.
  16. "Koppel Looks Back on a Decade of Nightline." Boston Globe, November 8, 1989, p. 80
  17. Solomon, Norman. – "Ted Koppel: 'Natural Fit' at NPR News and Longtime Booster of Henry Kissinger". – Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). – January 16, 2006
  18. "Kelly Heyboer, "A Journalistic Coup Turns Sour," American Journalism Review, September 1997, pp. 10–11". Ajr.org. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  19. Jerold Wedge (16 September 2015). "(Tuesdays with) Morrie Schwartz: Lessons on Living, Ted Koppel Nightline Interview" – via YouTube.
  20. "Koppel Takes Posts at The Times and NPR", The New York Times, January 13, 2006
  21. "Ted Koppel to Join NPR as Senior News Analyst", NPR, January 12, 2006
  22. Ted Koppel biography, NPR,
  23. Consoli, John. "Ted Koppel Joins BBC World News America". Adweek.com. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
  24. "Ted Koppel returns to anchor's chair on 'BBC World News America'". Latimesblogs.latimes.com. 2011-03-22. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
  25. Koppel, Ted (2013-08-06). "America's Chronic Overreaction to Terrorism". Wall Street Journal. WSJ. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  26. "‘Lights Out,’ by Ted Koppel", New York Times, Nov. 20, 2015
  27. Chris Ariens (2016-03-13). "Ted Koppel Named Special Contributor to CBS Sunday Morning | TVNewser". Adweek.com. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
  28. Johnson, Ted (2020-03-25). "Ted Koppel, In a Return To 'Nightline', Warns Of Misinformation During Coronavirus Crisis". Deadline. Retrieved 2020-04-06.
  29. Gough, Paul J. (November 28, 2008). "Ted Koppel, Discovery parting ways". Reuters.
  30. Genzlinger, Neil (July 9, 2008). "On the Trail of Consumerism in a Booming Chinese City". The New York Times.
  31. "Rebuilding the Future", The Philadelphia Inquirer, August 25, 2000
  32. "Ted Koppel gets his own program", The Jackson Sun, (Jackson, TN) July 4, 1975
  33. Ted Koppel biography, Museum of Broadcast Communications
  35. "Paul White Award". Radio Television Digital News Association. Retrieved 2014-05-27.
  36. "Honorary Degrees - Past Recipients". University of Southern California. Archived from the original on November 29, 2008. Retrieved January 2, 2011.
  37. “” (2001-10-11). "Ted Koppel entertains CitrusTV". YouTube. Retrieved 2010-07-18.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  38. "Pikes.org - Prominent Pikes". 2 February 2009. Archived from the original on 2 February 2009.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  39. "Ted Koppel : Awards". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2017-01-18.
  40. "Joel Rosenberg on The Passion of the Christ on National Review Online". 26 December 2010. Archived from the original on 26 December 2010.
  41. "Ted Koppel's son, 40, found dead in NYC apartment". USA Today. June 1, 2010. Archived from the original on 31 October 2010.
  42. Columbia Journalism Review, March/April 1989.
  43. Mosk, Matthew. - "Koppel Tries to Cut Neighbors Down to Size". - Washington Post. - December 26, 2002. - Retrieved: 2008-07-10
Preceded by
Frank Reynolds		 Nightline anchor
March 24, 1980 – November 22, 2005		 Succeeded by
Terry Moran, Cynthia McFadden, and Martin Bashir
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