Posted
9:10 AM
by Gene
"This is an industry, it's a business. We exist to make money. We exist to put commercials on the air. The programming that is put on between those commercials is simply the bait we put in the mousetrap."That's a long way from
WIRES AND LIGHTS, Lord Koppel.
"If it is true that David Letterman can draw a lot more viewers than 'Nightline' and Ted Koppel, if you can make an extra $30 million or $50 million a year, I absolutely understand they not only have the right but the fiduciary obligation to do that. I just don't think they did it the best way in terms of the handling of it. We were among the last to learn about it. You just don't do that to people who have worked hard for you for a long time."Still smarting from that, Your Lordship?
"I do think Charlie Gibson would make an absolutely splendid anchor," he says. But noting the rise of "GMA" under Gibson and Diane Sawyer, he says, "Those morning shows are moneymaking machines. Changing such a successful equation could cost you tens of millions of dollars."If these guys talked of news with the same zeal they talk of money this poor blogger wouldn't call them NEWS HACKS.
Then again, maybe the problem is they DO talk of news with ZEAL.
And here, in a nutshell, is the tragedy of Lord Koppel: he was a GREAT reporter -- and then he became a legend in his own mind.