Ted Koppel Pens First Piece as 'NY Times' Columnist--Comes Out Swinging

Editor and Publisher ^ | 01/29/06 | E&P Staff

[kcvl]

But his view is that journalists "should be telling their viewers what is important, not the other way around. "

Shows us how much he knows about real news audiences. I believe they have tried this for 30 years or more. It's not as if we can't find out the truth about what is important to us without them. He and his "friends" are just po'd because they can't CONTROL what THEY THINK IS IMPORTANT TO VIEWERS.

[KDD]

I don't remember being aware of media bias until Reagan got elected while I was in grad school.

It became obvious to me during the first Nixon Administration.

"Indeed, in television news these days, the programs are being shaped to attract, most particularly, 18-to-34-year-old viewers. They, in turn, are presumed to be partly brain-dead — though not so insensible as to be unmoved by the blandishments of sponsors.

I suspect this part of his screed is true.

[McGavin999]

"The accusation that television news has a political agenda misses the point. Right now, the main agenda is to give people what they want. It is not partisanship but profitability that shapes what you see."

Ah, now I understand. The reason the news is losing viewership is NOT because of partisanship but it's because of profitability. How does that work? I mean, if you are only interested in profitability and giving people what they want, why are you losing viewers?

[hinckley buzzard]

Koppel is really a case study in ignorance. Propelled into the public eye by the accident of covering "America Held Hostage," he has ridden his late night hobby horse to fame and fortune while achieving nothing of his own in almost thirty years.

Time and time again, for example, he sat with Soviet mouthpieces, uncritically sucking down their propagandist spew as if it were an accurate representation of a valid point of view. He appeared to be oblivious to the transparent spin going on in front of him.

The only other venue he ever chaired was a risibly self-serving circle-jerk in which he and several of his "journalist" peers preened and posed as if examining themselves, while in the end always deciding that in fact they were objective, important, nay indispensible tutors to the education of the lumpen-viewership to whom they vouchsafed their services.

Now, even though he has been left in the dust by the very populace he insults, he still believes it is up to him and his lamebrain colleagues.

In recognition of these and other amazing performances, I nominate Ted Koppel for a special Lifetime Achievement, Flaming Anus Award, media category.

[ConservativeGreek]

or subjective adjectives while reading the news.

"Objectivity" is a subversive activity at Columbia School of Journalism.

[AustinBill]

The goal for the traditional broadcast networks now "is to identify those segments of the audience considered most desirable by the advertising community and then to cater to them," Koppel writes.

Here, in a nutshell, is the broadcaster's dilemma. In all traditional media the customer is the advertiser, not the viewer/reader. The viewer is simply the product being sold to the advertiser, which is why the broadcaster's only interest in the viewer is in being able to aggregate and package them for sale in largest numbers and in the most desired "demographics". "News", "entertainment", "sports", etc., simply category designators whose content (apart from the ability to attract viewership) is basically irrelevant. The business is sorting and packaging "eyeballs" for sale to advertisers. This business model is so engrained, so much part of the air traditional media breathes, that they cannot imagine any other business model.

This business model no longer works, which is why all traditional media is dying. Some are dying faster (e.g., newspapers) but they're all heading for the same business graveyard.

They will not be mourned.

[Porterville]

Koppel is an aging news-slut