May 1, 2004
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:It's the Ratings, Stupid
Back when I could stay up that late I was Nightline fanatic. I've watched Koppel hand a generous length of rope to blowhards of all persuasions, including the famous Al Campanis and Jimmy the Greek interviews. I'm not, therefore, predisposed to view him as a Media Bias problem.
Truthfully, I can't make up my mind about the decision to make an upcoming Nightline special a memorial roll call. It's certainly odd, compared to the usual Nightline fare, but it doesn't strike me as partisan. I think Jeff Goldstein places the issue in the most accurate perspective in this section of his faux Koppel interview:
protein wisdom: "So you were actually hoping it would fail -- that barely anyone would be interested enough to sit through the whole thing -- but now you're pleasantly surprised at all the attention it's gotten?"Ted Koppel: "That about sums it up, sure."
P.S. The sister of Dreck is a Chomsky fan, unfortunately. Or at least she enjoyed the show when it came through town. In the course of seeking sympathy from Jeff about this sorry state of familial affairs, he tells me by e-mail that a bunch of angry Chomsky acolytes wrote to him thinking the interview was real - how dare he interrupt! Clearly they have never seen their thin-skinned hero actually respond to criticism.
One might be tempted to observe that ratings, of a sort, play a part in that show as well.
UPDATE: "SamAm, one of Jeff's commenters, asks:
For those who don't agree with what Nightline is doing:It's your broadcast tonight. How do you honor the sacrifices of US soldiers who've lost their lives? And how do you do so in a non-political manner?
Question the premise: Why should a news interview show "honor the sacrifices of US soldiers"? If the awkward premise is mandatory, bring on guests with differing views on how to do so.
2nd UPDATE: According to a commenter below, I couldn't remember a Jimmy the Greek interview. Well, it has been a long time.
Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at May 1, 2004 10:05 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksMy problem with "The Fallen" is twofold:
1) timing
and
2) medium
You cannot honor the fallen when you are dishonoring the cause for which he fell.
Ted, last night, worked for the other side.
Small correction: Campanis was on Nightline but Snyder wasn't.
Snyder was being informally interviewed by a Washington, D.C., reporter in a restaurant (or bar).
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/almanac/video/1988/
(I remember Koppel's interview of Campanis, a basically good elderly man caught out of his depth. And Koppel calmly unreeled the rope foot by foot. And then, jerk!)
old maltese:
(I remember Koppel's interview of Campanis, a basically good elderly man caught out of his depth. And Koppel calmly unreeled the rope foot by foot. And then, jerk!)
My recollection is that Koppel was flabbergasted, and gave Campanis several chances to say, "Oops, I misspoke! What I meant to say was ...".
Bill -- you're absolutely right. But my point was that Campanis was out of his depth.
Koppel saw where Campanis was going and could have helped him -- 'Surely, Al, you don't mean to say .....' -- but he didn't. The drowning man drowned. (I'm mixing my metaphors; better stop.)
"Koppel saw where Campanis was going and could have helped him -- 'Surely, Al, you don't mean to say .....' -- but he didn't. The drowning man drowned. (I'm mixing my metaphors; better stop.)"
Scott Ostler--who at that time was working for the sports section of the LA Times--commented that he'd seen Koppel grill up guests like trout on a hibatchi, and that in this case he had treated Campanis with astonishing gentleness until he just couldn't any more--Campanis just wouldn't accept the help. The sad part of it was that the interview was meant to be a nice tribute to Jackie Robinson on the 40th anniversary of his first game with the Dodgers, and was meant to kill the time before Koppel's reporter in Vegas came on and reported on the Hagler-Leonard fight going on that night (who would have thought that incredible fight would be the second most prominent sports story of the night?). As angry as the Campanis interview made a lot of people (including me), I think the predominant emotion ended up being pity--a good man screwed up the last part of his life with ten minutes of stupidity.
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