Ted Koppel has spent more than five decades in broadcast journalism, covering the most important stories, and interviewing the most important news-makers.
Ted Koppel
Ted Koppel is best-known as the host of Nightline, a late-night television news program on ABC; during his twenty-five years as anchor, he introduced a new style of electronic journalism that would later become the norm. When Nightline began in 1980, most news shows featured an anchor who stayed in the studio, and correspondents who reported from the field. Koppel changed that, taking Nightline all over the world, and talking directly with the newsmakers. But while Nightline helped to usher in a revolution in television news, this was not Koppel’s only accomplishment. During his long career, he has been a reporter, a correspondent, and an anchor; he has produced documentaries, and he has written several books. Frequently honored for excellence in journalism, Koppel has won eight Peabody Awards, eleven Overseas Press Club Awards, and more than forty Emmy Awards. And whether reporting from a war zone, questioning a president, or talking to a celebrity, he has been consistently praised for his skill as a tough but fair interviewer.
Edward James Martin “Ted” Koppel was born in Lancashire, England in 1940, the only child of parents who had escaped from Nazi Germany. Ultimately the family moved to the United States, in 1953. Growing up, Koppel admired the work of journalist Edward R. Murrow, and he was drawn to study journalism in college. He was also a fan of radio: while attending Syracuse University, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in 1960, he was an active member of WAER, the campus radio station. Koppel received his Master’s degree from Stanford University in 1962; he began his radio career working for New York station WMCA, before being hired by ABC Radio News in 1963. This led to opportunities reporting on breaking news, including going to Selma, Alabama in 1965 to report on the civil rights movement.
In 1966, he moved from radio to TV; among his assignments, he was sent to Vietnam to report on the war. By late 1967, he became the Bureau Chief for ABC’s Miami News Bureau, and he also covered politics. Then, in 1969, ABC named him Bureau Chief in Hong Kong, where his work took him to back to Vietnam, as well as to Pakistan, Indonesia, and other countries. In 1971, he was back in the United States, assigned to cover the State Department; while serving as ABC’s Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, he was one of the reporters who accompanied President Nixon on his 1972 visit to China.
Koppel was still ABC’s Chief Diplomatic Correspondent when in November 1979, Iranian militants took fifty-two Americans hostage. In addition to regular coverage of the ongoing story, ABC-TV created a series of special reports called “The Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage.” It was anchored by veteran news reporter Frank Reynolds, but Koppel was one of the regular correspondents. He made such a good impression that ABC News President Roone Arledge decided Koppel would anchor a new late-night program, to be known as Nightline.
Nightline debuted on May 24, 1980; it was a unique blend of thorough reports on the day’s biggest stories, insightful interviews with newsmakers, and coverage of breaking news. Among the places Koppel took Nightline were South Africa (where he spoke with Nelson Mandela), Vietnam, the Philippines, Iraq, Egypt, Somalia, and Israel’s West Bank. When he wasn’t traveling, he continued covering US politics, interviewing presidents, presidential candidates, first ladies, and members of congress. Nightline also provided viewers the chance to hear from controversial guests, like the Philippines’ autocratic ruler Ferdinand Marcos or scandal-plagued televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Koppel also interviewed a wide range of celebrities, including science-fiction author Ray Bradbury; film director Oliver Stone; rock stars Frank Zappa and Bruce Springsteen; boxer Muhammad Ali; and media mogul Ted Turner. And proving he had a sense of humor, one night, Koppel co-hosted his show with the Muppets. Nightline was also there to cover serious news stories-- the AIDS crisis; Hurricane Katrina; the relationship between the US and China; even discussions of trends in popular culture. And although Nightline was on the air late at night, audiences willingly stayed up to watch: it regularly attracted more than five million viewers.
Ted Koppel has always prided himself on being objective, but he has never shied away from controversy. For example, in 2004, Nightline did a special broadcast called “The Fallen,” during which he devoted the entire program to reading the names and showing photos of the more than 700 U.S. members of the military who had been killed in the Iraq war; he was accused by supporters of President Bush of using Nightline for partisan purposes, something Koppel denied.
In addition to anchoring Nightline, Koppel hosted a series of ABC-TV special programs called Viewpoint; beginning in 1981, it aired about four times a year, lasting into the 1990s. It featured panelists who critiqued current news coverage-- analyzing how certain stories had been reported; there was also a live in-studio audience who could express their own views about what was on the air. Among the topics that Viewpoint discussed were whether cameras should be allowed in the courtroom (an episode broadcast live from the studios of Boston’s WGBH-TV); whether media coverage was sensationalizing crime; and the challenges the media faced when covering terrorism.
After forty-two years with ABC, Koppel left the network in late November 2005. Since then, he served as Managing Editor of the Discovery Channel, provided news analysis for BBC America, written commentaries about the news for such publications as the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, been a commentator for National Public Radio, and most recently, he has worked as a senior contributor to “CBS Sunday Morning.” Koppel is the author of Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made Public, published in 2000; and his most recent book, Lights Out, published in 2015. Frequently in demand as a public speaker, Ted Koppel offers a unique perspective on broadcast journalism, informed by his many years of experience. We are privileged to welcome him to the Boston Speakers Series.