Ted Koppel | |
|---|---|
 Koppel in December 2017 | |
| Born | Edward James Martin Koppel (1940-02-08)February 8, 1940 (age 86) Nelson,Lancashire, England |
| Education | Syracuse University (BS) Stanford University (MA) |
| Occupations | |
| Years active | 1963–present |
| Known for | Nightline (1980–2005) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4, includingAndrea |
Edward James Martin Koppel (born February 8, 1940) is an American broadcastjournalist, best known as theanchor forNightline, from the program's inception in 1980 until 2005.
BeforeNightline, he spent 20 years as a broadcast journalist and news anchor forABC. After becoming host ofNightline, he was regarded as one of the outstanding serious-minded interviewers on American television. Five years after its 1980 debut, the show had a nightly audience of about 7.5 million viewers.[1]
After leavingNightline, Koppel worked asmanaging editor for theDiscovery Channel, a news analyst forNPR andBBC World News America and a contributor toRock Center with Brian Williams. Since 2016, Koppel has served as Senior Contributor toCBS News Sunday Morning. His career as a foreign and diplomatic correspondent earned him numerous awards, including nineOverseas Press Club awards and 43Emmy Awards.
Edward James Martin Koppel,[2] an only child, was born inNelson, England. His parents were GermanJews who fled Germany after the rise ofAdolf Hitler andNazism.[3] In Germany, Koppel's father operated a tire-manufacturing company. To help the British economy, theHome Secretary invited him and his wife to move the factory toLancashire,England, where he was promised they would be protected in the event of war.[3] The factory moved in 1936, but when war broke out in Europe in 1939, Koppel's father was declared anenemy alien and imprisoned on theIsle of Man for approximately a year.[3]
Koppel was born in 1940, shortly after his father was taken away. To provide for her infant son, his mother sold her personal jewelry and did menial work in London.[3] After he was released from internment, Koppel's father was not permitted to work in England, nor would he allow his wife to work. Following the end of the war, the family earned some money from their confiscated assets and decided to leave for the United States.[3] While in England, Ted Koppel was a pupil atAbbotsholme School, in Derbyshire. In 1953 when he was 13, the family immigrated to the United States,[3] where his mother, Alice, became a singer and pianist, and his father, Edwin, opened a tire factory.[4] Koppel's boyhood hero was radio broadcasterEdward R. Murrow, whose factual reports during thebombing of London inspired him to become a journalist.[5] The bombing of London ended when Koppel was 16 months old.
After attending theMcBurney School, a private preparatory institution in New York,[6] Koppel attendedSyracuse University,[7] graduating at age 20 with aBachelor of Science degree. He was a member of the Alpha Chi chapter of thePi Kappa Alpha fraternity. One roommate recalled 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."[8]
Koppel then went toStanford University, where he earned aMaster of Arts degree inmass-communications research andpolitical science.[9] While at Stanford, he met his future wife, Grace Anne Dorney.[3]
Koppel had a brief stint as a teacher before being hired as acopyboy atThe New York Times and as a writer atWMCA Radio in New York. In June 1963, he became the youngest correspondent ever hired byABC Radio News, working on the dailyFlair Reports program. His coverage of theKennedy assassination in 1963 withCharles Osgood caused the national news audience to take notice.[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 thecivil rights movement inSelma, Alabama. ABC officials were impressed by Koppel's ability to clarify issues using plain language.[5] In 1966, he became the ABC News correspondent for theVietnam War, moving from radio broadcasting to 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 ofRichard Nixon, before becoming Hong Kong bureau chief, andU.S. State Department correspondent where Koppel formed a friendship withHenry Kissinger.[3] According to Nixon advisorJohn Ehrlichman, Koppel's friendship with Kissinger was partly due to their similar backgrounds, having Jewish refugee parents and emigrating to America in their youth.[3]
Koppel was among those traveling to China with U.S. PresidentRichard Nixon in 1972. He spoke about it with theUSC US-China Institute in their "Assignment: China" documentary series about American media coverage of China.[10] Koppel likened the trip to a "journey to the dark side of the moon". By 1975, he was anchoring the ABC Evening News on Saturdays, and he continued to file reports for ABC Radio.[11]
Koppel would often report on State Department 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 career, to stay home with his children so that his wife could complete her education atGeorgetown Law School. Koppel's decision upset ABC News presidentRoone Arledge, who demoted Koppel from news anchor when he returned to the network.[8]
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 anAlfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award.[5]
In 1980, Koppel became known for his work as the host of a late-night news program calledNightline. The program originated as a series of special reports about the 444-day-longIran hostage crisis, during which Iranian militants held 52 Americans captive, beginning in early November 1979. At first, the program was calledThe Iran Crisis: America Held Hostage, and was hosted byFrank Reynolds. Koppel eventually joined Reynolds as co-anchor. In March 1980, the program evolved intoNightline, with Koppel as its host.[12] Koppel spent twenty-five years anchoring the program, before leaving ABC andNightline in late November 2005.[13]
While hostingNightline, Koppel also hosted a series of special programs calledViewpoint, beginning in 1981, which provided media criticism and analysis. The show 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.[14]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.[15] In the late 1980s, the progressive media criticism organizationFairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) claimed that policymakers and ex-officials dominated theNightline 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".[16]
In 1990, Koppel interviewedNelson Mandela in a US-styletown hall meeting.[17] Also in 1990, ABC News ran a one-hour special called "The Best of Nightline with Ted Koppel".[18]
In 1997,Nate Thayer, a journalist writing for theFar Eastern Economic Review who later interviewedPol Pot shortly before the latter's death, claimed that Koppel andABC News made averbal agreement with Thayer for the exclusive North American rights to use video from a show trial of Pol Pot that Thayer and Asiaworks Television videographer David McKaige witnessed onNightline. Thayer claimed ABC purportedly violated that agreement by postingscreenshot stills of video from the interview onABCNews.com, violating the license as the site was accessible throughout the world, though not uploading the actual video.[19]
On November 22, 2005, Koppel stepped down fromNightline after 25 years with the program and left ABC after 42 years with the network. His finalNightline 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 ofNightlinewith Koppel's 1995 interviews with retiredBrandeis University sociology professorMorrie Schwartz, who was dying ofLou Gehrig's disease.[20]
On March 24, 2020, Koppel made a guest appearance onNightline to mark the program's 40th anniversary, discussing how he and his wife had been coping with theCOVID-19 pandemic.[21]
FollowingNightline Koppel has taken on a number of roles which span various formats ofnews media:
Koppel returns to Syracuse University regularly as a guest speaker. He was a member of the student-runWAER and keeps in touch with the student media at Syracuse.[38] He is a member of thePi Kappa Alpha fraternity.[39]
Koppel is married to Grace Anne (née Dorney). He became anaturalized citizen of the United States in 1963.[41] 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.[42]
Koppel speaks German and French, in addition to his native English.[7]
A longtime friend of Koppel was former Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger. Both of them moved to the United States as children. Along with former Secretary of StateAlexander Haig, Kissinger was the most frequent guest onNightline.[16] In a 1989 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," then 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".[43]
In 1993, Koppel and his wife paid $2.7 million for 16 acres (6.5 ha) overlooking thePotomac River inPotomac, Maryland.[44] They sued to hold their neighbors to an agreement to limit the size of the houses in the neighborhood to 10,000 ft2 (930 m2).[44]
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote| Preceded by Frank Reynolds | Nightlineanchor March 24, 1980 – November 22, 2005 | Succeeded by Terry Moran,Cynthia McFadden, andMartin Bashir |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
