Ha Ha! Ted Koppel defends Journalists over F9/11...

[trumad]

Oh Ted, open your eyes?


LOS ANGELES -- In Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore blasted the media for being too timid before the Iraq war. Some of TV journalism's biggest names are answering him.

Ted Koppel, anchor of ABC's Nightline, described the film as "a terrific piece of entertainment" with interesting facts but an alarming approach.

"It is to the documentary what the JFK film was to history," he says. "Nightline is not nearly as entertaining as Fahrenheit 9/11."

He says Nightline covered many of the stories in the movie but not as political polemics. He says he worries that journalism will lose its striving for objectivity if Americans, on both sides of the political spectrum, demand news with an attitude.

"We're never going to be as entertaining as 9/11, we're never going to be as entertaining as the movie JFK," Koppel says. "But there is still, I think, a desperation for down-the-middle news."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/orl-livnamescp16_tvst071604jul16,0,1276464.story?coll=orl-home-entlife

[chelsea0011]

1. Ted the Embedded

What a travel log his "reporting" was.

[underpants]

4. F9/11-Koppel-~"What a magnificient killing machine"

Something like that on the US troops-part of the section on how the news glorified the war, scared the hell out of everyone, and never quesitoned a thing.

[kerryin2004]

2. I would settle for down the middle news...

so tell me where to find it!!

[underpants]

3. Ridiculous quote from Brokaw (same original article)

"It's really easy to turn back the clock now and say, 'Oh, it was the fault , especially of the electronic media, that we went to war because they jumped on the bandwagon,' " Brokaw said. "If you do a fair review, we gave a very vigorous accounting of what was known and what was not known at the time. ... The American news networks and the newspapers, for the most part, did as well as they could under the circumstances."

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=1866

[rpannier]

8. By Vigorous he means...

said nothing contradictory about the lead up. Never challeneged shrub at a press conference. Sat on their hands vigorously nodding their heads yes.

[underpants]

10. Is that how Brokaw got TWO exclusive "interviews"* with W?

*by interview I mean hour long puff piece with backlighting of the first couple and soft hues in the private residence, questions about how well they get along and how wonderful everything they have ever done has ever been.

[truthspeaker]

13. like when Brokaw "vigorously" interviewed Blix, Ritter, other WMD doubers?

Wait, he didn't do that.

Vigorous my ass.

[Eric J in MN]

5. A good journalist exposes lies by the govt. A good journalist...

A good journalist exposes lies by the govt.

A good journalist doesn't just air one side talking and then air another side talking.

[rpannier]

6. Koppel left out...

We'll never be as informative as F-9/11. We'll never be as accurate as F-9/11...We'll never be as independent as F-9/11

[trumad]

7. That's what cracks me up

they seem to think that they were...

[htuttle]

9. "Down the middle news" is not unbiased

That's one of the fallacies that Americans operate under -- that the 'fair' accounting is the one that tells each side equally.

But think about it: If a man robs a bank in broad daylight, on video tape, should the media provide equal coverage to some crazy story the culprit came up with to explain away the evidence (like "Aliens cloned me and the clone robbed the bank").

Are all 'sides' to a story truly equal? Everyone thinks they are doing the right thing -- even Manson and Hitler did. Does 'down the middle' mean granting all arguments equal weight and coverage? (and they obviously don't even do that -- establishment/status-quo arguments clearly get favored).

Why doesn't the news media try to investigate and report the facts as best they can instead, regardless of whose 'side' the facts seem to favor?

[trumad]

12. exactly...

It's like WMD... There wern't any so does that mean the media turn it around and start using Rove talking points like we're there to liberate?

That's what they did in their quest to be er down the middle.

[lostnfound]

14. Exactly. Also, the American 'middle' is seriously overweight these days..

figuratively and literally. Heavily skewed towards consumerism/greed.

[porphyrian]

11. Hey Ted, Nice Hair. - n/t