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CNN Saturday Morning News

"The Novak Zone": Interview with Ted Koppel

Aired June 28, 2003 - 09:29   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: He is one of America's most respected journalists, who has covered nearly a dozen wars, including the war in Iraq. ABC News "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel joins CNN's Robert Novak in this week's edition of "The Novak Zone."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT NOVAK, HOST: Welcome to "The Novak Zone." We're at the ABC-TV bureau in downtown Washington with Ted Koppel, the host of ABC's "Nightline."

Mr. Koppel, you just finished arduous duty with the 3rd Infantry Division as an embedded correspondent. You had some misgivings about that. Were your misgivings relieved after you had your actual duty in Iraq?

TED KOPPEL, ANCHOR, ABC'S "NIGHTLINE": Well, they were certainly relieved after there was no biological or chemical warfare. That was my biggest misgiving. The second misgiving was, I really didn't quite believe, being the cynic that I am, that the Pentagon would be as good as its word, and that we would have both the access and the ability to report without interference that we did get. I was wrong.

NOVAK: You, as the case with me, were -- did a little reporting in Vietnam years ago as a young correspondent. What was the difference between being on your own and being in Vietnam and being embedded in Iraq?

KOPPEL: Two and half days. As you remember, back in those days, although I don't think that you -- I don't think you dabbled in television back in those halcyon days, it took two and a half days before the reports that we did in Vietnam actually made it on the air.

They were filmed. The film had to be physically shipped from wherever we were in the field, back to Saigon, from Saigon to Tokyo, from Tokyo to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to New York, a motorcycle courier would take it in. The film would be processed, edited. And two and a half days would have passed. You wrote stories a certain way.

In Iraq, we quite literally were on the air in two and a half seconds, and that make as big difference.

NOVAK: Our British cousins, many of whom were not embedded but on their own, have been critical of the American media being not only embedded but co-opted. Was there a danger there? Did the British have that right in any respect?

KOPPEL: I don't know that there's ever a time that you can be with a military unit that you don't develop a certain sympathy for the people who, after all, are feeding you, giving you water, and protecting your physical welfare.

But co-opted in the sense that if and when we saw something was going wrong, we didn't report it? No. Co-opted in the sense that because most of our reports were positive? Yes, they were positive, because by and large, with very few exceptions, the operation, at least that four-week operation, the drive to Baghdad, went extremely well.

NOVAK: "Nightline," which started as "America Held Hostage," I believe, 23 years ago...

KOPPEL: Actually, 24 as "America Held Hostage."

NOVAK: Yes. The -- at that time, there were no cable news networks. First cable news network was CNN in 1980.

KOPPEL: Right.

NOVAK: How has the proliferation, the massive outpouring of news opportunities, changed your program?

KOPPEL: Well, it's -- I'm not sure that it's changed the program in terms of the content so much. It certainly changed the presentation a little bit. It has to be somewhat jazzier than I think it was back in 1979 and 1980. The simple fact of the matter is, it's changed television altogether, not just television news.

I'll give you a very a simple example. In 1980, when "Nightline" began, "Nightline" and the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, and whatever it was that CBS had back on in those days, had, among the three of us, we had 70 percent of the audience every night at 11:30.

These days, the three networks have less than 30 percent. Why? Because there's been the very proliferation that you just spoke of. There are more people watching television than ever before, but fewer people watching any given network than ever before.

NOVAK: Are you concerned at all about the trivialization of not only the broadcast networks, but the cable networks, on what they present as news, that there's less serious news than there used to be?

KOPPEL: You bet. Although I'm not sure it's entirely accurate to say there's less serious news. I think there's as much serious news as there ever was, but you just have to hunt for it a little harder.

NOVAK: And now the big question for Ted Koppel.

The FCC has issued an order which lessens the restrictions on joint ownership of print and electronic media. There's efforts being made in Congress to reverse that by Republicans as well as Democrats. Are you concerned? Do you fear the possibility of the big media barons controlling what we report to America?

KOPPEL: Well, it's interesting, the Disney Corporation, which, of course, owns ABC, which owns "Nightline," as part of its submission to the FCC, argued that it needed the capacity to buy more stations because something like 10 percent of the stations out there right now don't carry "Nightline" live, and they were making the argument that this would put them in the position to increase "Nightline"'s viewership.

So it would be churlish of me to disagree with such noble intentions on the Disney Corporation's part.

NOVAK: That's a very diplomatic answer for a former chief diplomatic correspondent.

Ted Koppel, thank you very much.

KOPPEL: My pleasure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired June 28, 2003 - 09:29   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: He is one of America's most respected journalists, who has covered nearly a dozen wars, including the war in Iraq. ABC News "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel joins CNN's Robert Novak in this week's edition of "The Novak Zone."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT NOVAK, HOST: Welcome to "The Novak Zone." We're at the ABC-TV bureau in downtown Washington with Ted Koppel, the host of ABC's "Nightline."

Mr. Koppel, you just finished arduous duty with the 3rd Infantry Division as an embedded correspondent. You had some misgivings about that. Were your misgivings relieved after you had your actual duty in Iraq?

TED KOPPEL, ANCHOR, ABC'S "NIGHTLINE": Well, they were certainly relieved after there was no biological or chemical warfare. That was my biggest misgiving. The second misgiving was, I really didn't quite believe, being the cynic that I am, that the Pentagon would be as good as its word, and that we would have both the access and the ability to report without interference that we did get. I was wrong.

NOVAK: You, as the case with me, were -- did a little reporting in Vietnam years ago as a young correspondent. What was the difference between being on your own and being in Vietnam and being embedded in Iraq?

KOPPEL: Two and half days. As you remember, back in those days, although I don't think that you -- I don't think you dabbled in television back in those halcyon days, it took two and a half days before the reports that we did in Vietnam actually made it on the air.

They were filmed. The film had to be physically shipped from wherever we were in the field, back to Saigon, from Saigon to Tokyo, from Tokyo to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to New York, a motorcycle courier would take it in. The film would be processed, edited. And two and a half days would have passed. You wrote stories a certain way.

In Iraq, we quite literally were on the air in two and a half seconds, and that make as big difference.

NOVAK: Our British cousins, many of whom were not embedded but on their own, have been critical of the American media being not only embedded but co-opted. Was there a danger there? Did the British have that right in any respect?

KOPPEL: I don't know that there's ever a time that you can be with a military unit that you don't develop a certain sympathy for the people who, after all, are feeding you, giving you water, and protecting your physical welfare.

But co-opted in the sense that if and when we saw something was going wrong, we didn't report it? No. Co-opted in the sense that because most of our reports were positive? Yes, they were positive, because by and large, with very few exceptions, the operation, at least that four-week operation, the drive to Baghdad, went extremely well.

NOVAK: "Nightline," which started as "America Held Hostage," I believe, 23 years ago...

KOPPEL: Actually, 24 as "America Held Hostage."

NOVAK: Yes. The -- at that time, there were no cable news networks. First cable news network was CNN in 1980.

KOPPEL: Right.

NOVAK: How has the proliferation, the massive outpouring of news opportunities, changed your program?

KOPPEL: Well, it's -- I'm not sure that it's changed the program in terms of the content so much. It certainly changed the presentation a little bit. It has to be somewhat jazzier than I think it was back in 1979 and 1980. The simple fact of the matter is, it's changed television altogether, not just television news.

I'll give you a very a simple example. In 1980, when "Nightline" began, "Nightline" and the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson, and whatever it was that CBS had back on in those days, had, among the three of us, we had 70 percent of the audience every night at 11:30.

These days, the three networks have less than 30 percent. Why? Because there's been the very proliferation that you just spoke of. There are more people watching television than ever before, but fewer people watching any given network than ever before.

NOVAK: Are you concerned at all about the trivialization of not only the broadcast networks, but the cable networks, on what they present as news, that there's less serious news than there used to be?

KOPPEL: You bet. Although I'm not sure it's entirely accurate to say there's less serious news. I think there's as much serious news as there ever was, but you just have to hunt for it a little harder.

NOVAK: And now the big question for Ted Koppel.

The FCC has issued an order which lessens the restrictions on joint ownership of print and electronic media. There's efforts being made in Congress to reverse that by Republicans as well as Democrats. Are you concerned? Do you fear the possibility of the big media barons controlling what we report to America?

KOPPEL: Well, it's interesting, the Disney Corporation, which, of course, owns ABC, which owns "Nightline," as part of its submission to the FCC, argued that it needed the capacity to buy more stations because something like 10 percent of the stations out there right now don't carry "Nightline" live, and they were making the argument that this would put them in the position to increase "Nightline"'s viewership.

So it would be churlish of me to disagree with such noble intentions on the Disney Corporation's part.

NOVAK: That's a very diplomatic answer for a former chief diplomatic correspondent.

Ted Koppel, thank you very much.

KOPPEL: My pleasure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com