Ted Koppel On the State of the News Industry: 'I Think It's a Disaster'

[Mr. Sparkle]

On BBC World News America last night, contributing analyst Ted Koppel had a few choice words about the state of the news industry these days.

In response to a question from anchor Katty Kay about a new Pew Research survey — in which 64 percent of broadcast news executives believe the biz is heading in the wrong direction — Koppel said, "I think it's even worse. I think it's a disaster."

"I think we're living through the — I hope — the final stages of what I like to call the age of entitlement...We now feel entitled not to have the news that we need but the news that we want. We want to listen to news that comes from those who already sympathize with our particular point of view. We don't want the facts any more."

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/bbc/ted_koppel_on_the_state_of_the_news_industry_i_think_its_a_disaster_158304.asp
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8616838.stm

[ixion]

1. I agree with Mr. Koppel, and further

I don't think what is passed off as 'news' has anything to do with actual investigative journalism. It's sanitized corporate infopablum.

[kenny blankenship]

2. As long as by "we" he means primarily corporate news conglomerate news producers and advert sponsors

then I would agree. I would also agree that there seems to be a large part of the viewing public that demands the news block of programming be a continuation of their daytime television viewing preferences. However their tastes for soap opera and celebrity gossip and bogus self-improvement miracle-product marketing was empowered by calculating media barons who wanted to abrogate the contract with the FCC to inform the public in exchange for access to the airwaves.

[Hekate]

3. Oddly, this goes along with the rise of the Internet as a news source. It's so easy to filter...

... and see only what fits your own preconceptions. I see it as kind of a vicious cycle: the worse that broadcast news becomes, and the thinner that printed news becomes, the more we turn to the Internet and discussion boards, and discussion boards are by nature pre-filtered news.

I never, ever thought I'd give up subscribing to a daily newspaper. But my local paper became a rag so bad that every long-time reporter who wasn't fired ended up quitting in protest, and you couldn't trust anything the paper printed any more. And the LA Times became so anorexic (and got rid of many of its own quality reporters) that it wasn't worth what they want me to pay for a subscription either.

It is really, really distressing. I miss my daily printed newspaper -- I miss the LA Times and the Santa Barbara News-Press -- but they were pretty much dead when I finally let them go.

How incredibly easy for local politicians to go bad when no one reliable is watching them at City Council meetings, or doing the necessary research....

Ted Koppel is absolutely right. It's a disaster for the citizenry to be so ill-served and ill-informed.

Hekate

[Warpy]

8. I think part of the reason people have turned to the net for news

is that they know damned full well that they're being lied to, if only by omission. Desperate for hard information about the health insurance bills that have just been passed, they've been treated to Tiger Woods, ad nauseum.

I reached my breaking point during the 2004 campaign, when the bobbleheads would cite poll numbers and tell where the candidates were but never, ever tell what differences there were between them. It was celebrity gossip reporting, not news. I got disgusted and turned it off for the last time even before the national conventions. I have seen absolutely no reason to turn them back on. I got more news about the state of the country from reruns of The Simpsons, aired during the same hour in NM.

Unfortunately, broadcast and print news media are completely incapable of seeing their own faults and are equally incapable of accepting responsibility for their own actions in turning people away and toward alternative media, whether that is talk radio for morons or the net for people with a little more upstairs.

Koppel is right, it's a disaster and I don't see any hope of having that disaster addressed at all while the overpaid bobbleheads continue to be so handsomely rewarded for not doing their jobs.

[MindandSoul]

4. Mr. Koppel is entirely right! I'm glad he made that point publicly!

[YOY]

6. Only the BBC doesn't reach enough of the public here.

But one doesn't need him to say it to notice it.

There is no debate. Just conflict. Even if one's view is ludicrous it is still treated as viable for the sake of creating conflict.

Take the Creationists or the teabaggers screaming "soshulism"...both are standing on a complete lack of factual evidence/demonstrative fact but are treated as having some viable opinions instead of being capering loons.

Round table discussion is dead. Getting your opinions in the guise of "News" all readily previewed and in pundit bite sized is the norm.

[Captain Hilts]

21. I also read the Guardian, the Scotsman and the 'Torygraph'. nt

[YOY]

22. Yes, but sadly most of America doesn't Cap'n.

Even though it has RW leanings, I prefer the Economist m'self.

[Captain Hilts]

23. Also, try the Toronto Star. They're progressive, and they cover transit issues a LOT!!!!

[YOY]

24. Really?

Hrmmm...wonder if the Faber by my carries it....

[FiveGoodMen]

5. And, Ted? You helped make it that way!

Ted Koppel ... invited Limbaugh to be on Nightline (2/4/92) as an environmental "expert," opposite then-Sen. Al Gore.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1895

[Uncle Joe]

11. I second your post.

I remember one night when Koppel took a cheap shot at Al Gore just because Gore suggested during a lunch that Koppel should to do his job and follow the money, actually investigate.

Gore wasn't even on the program that night, so he had no chance to respond, but Koppel left the suggestion that Gore was somehow abusing his power.

I lost what little respect I had for Koppel that night.

Yesterday Koppel helped trash the news industry, today he whines about it being in the dump.

[zipplewrath]

12. It's more fundamental than that

It is "news as entertainment" that Koppel was part. Not the originator, that's probably 60 minutes, but none the less, it was the trend that started long ago, and Koppel was invested. It creates the symptom of which you speak. Opinions are left completely open and without fact checking at all. Opposite "sides" of a multi-dimensional issue are "created" so that two guests can entertain us with their views. No attempt is made to contrast and compare the basis of these views. They are presented as "equal". Equally plausible, equally popular, equally valid.

[Dr Morbius]

13. Yes. The development of the myth that...

..."there are two sides to every story".

Complete bunk. The story has as many sides as it has. There are two prevalent perspectives from which to view the story, and often one of those perspectives has no credibility.

This myth has done great damage to the fabric of our society.

[tbyg52]

17. Bingo. nt

[girl gone mad]

19. Does anyone else remember the shows Nightline was running..

in the lead up to the Iraq war?

There was one, in particular, that made me extremely suspicious that the media had a hidden agenda in promoting invasion. The theme of that show was, essentially, "war is beautiful".

The first time I saw a report from an embedded journalist, all of my worst suspicions were confirmed. The media wanted that war because the White House and Pentagon had promised them unprecedented access. They had dollar signs and dreams of future fame in their eyes and it clouded their vision to the extent that they chose to air uncritical war propaganda rather than engage in the kind of actual reporting that might have saved thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives and trillions of dollars that this country simply couldn't and can't afford.

Koppel is toward the top of my list of journalists who share blame for that clusterfuck, not far behind Judith Miller.

[old mark]

7. Ted is correct. Disaster is probably mild. More like dying rapidly.

Great hair, though......


mark

[devilgrrl]

9. K&R

:thumbsup:

[Dr Morbius]

10. I disagree with Mr. Koppel...

...when he says he thinks "...we're living through the — I hope — the final stages of what I like to call the age of entitlement..."

Final stages? This is only the beginning. A new age of willful ignorance has only just begun.

Freedom of the press is a quaint notion these days.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Broadcast news executives believe the biz is heading in the wrong direction?

Well then, why don't they DO something about it?

Aren't "broadcast news executives" responsible for what happens in their own "biz"?

[Blue Owl]

15. Meanwhile, the Propaganda Industry is thriving

n/t

[Downtown Hound]

16. Yes Ted, it is

And you helped make it that way. Have a nice day.

[applegrove]

18. Glad he said it. But with news in competition with the internet how

can we get the news back to where it was in the past.

[Captain Hilts]

20. Folks use 'news' sources on the Internet for affirmation, not information. nt

[Supersedeas]

25. Koppel is blaming the AUDIENCE for Networks catering to corporate interests?