Veteran journalist Ted Koppel believes the press and media are no longer the “reservoir of objectivity” they once were and President Trump is “not mistaken” about their bias against him.
The former ABC News anchor with decades of broadcast journalism experience likely raised some eyebrows with his remarks during a talk with Marvin Kalb at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace earlier this month.
“I’m terribly concerned that when you talk about the New York Times these days, when you talk about the Washington Post these days, we’re not talking about the New York Times of 50 years ago. We are not talking about the Washington Post of 50 years ago. We’re talking about organizations that I believe have, in fact, decided as organizations that Donald J. Trump is bad for the United States,” Koppel said, reinforcing the argument that anti-Trump sentiment in media is quite openly acknowledged.
“We have things appearing on the front page of the New York Times right now that never would have appeared 50 years ago. Analysis, commentary on the front page,” the 79-year-old, who anchored ABC’s “Nightline” for over 20 years, said.
“I remember sitting at the breakfast table with my wife during the campaign after the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape came out and the New York Times, and I will not offend any of you here by using the language but you know exactly what words were used and they were spelled out on the front page of the New York Times,” Koppel said, referring to the video shared by the press during the 2016 presidential campaign in which Trump had made lewd comments about women more than a decade before.
“I turned to my wife and I said the Times is absolutely committed to making sure that this guy does not get elected,” Koppel continued with his accurate impression.
Pulitzer Center Senior Adviser @MarvinKalb was joined by veteran journalist Ted Koppel and @CarnegieEndow President William J. Burns last week to discuss his new book, “Enemy of the People.” Watch here: https://t.co/R6HLDFARfG pic.twitter.com/sAe3FOhkup
— Pulitzer Center (@pulitzercenter) March 17, 2019
“So his perception that the establishment press is out to get him doesn’t mean that great journalism is not being done. It is. But the notion that most of us look upon Donald Trump as being an absolute fiasco, he’s not mistaken in that perception, and he’s not mistaken when so many of the liberal media, for example, described themselves as belonging to the Resistance,” he expounded.
The examples of the mainstream media hysteria over Trump are almost endless, with new illustrations each week following the footsteps of those like CNN’s Jim Acosta and MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough.
“What does that mean?” Koppel queried.
“That’s not said by people who consider themselves reporters, objective reporters of facts. That’s the kind of language that’s used by people who genuinely believe, and I rather suspect with some justification, that Donald Trump is bad for the United States,” he explained, “and they’re betting that the sooner he’s out of office the better they will like it. Whether that happens by virtue of indictment, impeachment or election, we’ll see.”
Koppel, who is highly familiar with the outlets he referred to, having served as a contributing columnist to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as his more than 40 years with ABC News, disagreed with Kalb’s contention on the objectivity of the press and media today.
“I disagree with you, Marvin. We are not the reservoir of objectivity that I think we were,”he said.
Back in October, Koppel gave CNN’s Brian Stelter a savage reality check about where the network would be without its continual diet of feeding on Trump. Koppel noted the co-dependency of the press and the president, telling Stelter that ratings at his network would be “in the toilet” without the president.
Last month, former CBS News reporter Lara Logan exposed the media bias as she noted that “85 percent of journalists are registered Democrats.”
CBS News reporter Lara Logan: The media, 85% Dems, have become propagandists and liberal activists https://t.co/hD9lW6JgOO pic.twitter.com/odAT0OOoz1
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) February 19, 2019
The former “60 Minutes” correspondent denounced the media’s blatant pushing of a political agenda, arguing “that’s not our job. That’s a political position.”
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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