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photography from Guatemala, Maryland, Italy and elsewhere by Doug Terry |
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VISIT DC? AN ESSAY ON WHY EVERY AMERICAN CITIZEN SHOULD VISIT |
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News, analysis, commentary, social trends, culture, politics, government, books, movies, travel, cycling and other stuff |
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T H E T E R R Y R E P O R T 2012 |
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Facts first, logic always, truth before everything |
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Ted Koppel popped up on THE TODAY SHOW and NBC Nightly News Monday (12.11.11) with a report on American troops leaving Iraq. In short, the story says the boots (military) are leaving, but the shoes, the civilian workers, embassy personnel, etc., are staying right where they are, all five to six thousand of them. So are a lot of contractors. The war in Iraq might be over, but the effort to rebuild the country and sustain an American presence near the border of Iran goes right on from here. Here’s is where I have a problem with the report. Why is Koppel the only guy who can bring us these facts? The story itself is rather simple and straight forward. Almost any decent reporter could go to Iraq and come back with something similar or very close. One reason is this: the network simply wouldn’t give the air time to someone else. To get on network television news these days you need a hot story, or something that the news desk is pushing because they believe it will make a good item (usually because they have already read the outline of the story in the NY Times or the Wall Street Journal, maybe even the Washington Post). If Joe Average reporter had gone to Iraq and come back with the similar piece, it probably wouldn’t have made air, or it would have been reduced to a meaningless, much shorter report. The main purpose of having Koppel go on Nightly and Today was to promote Brian Williams’ show, Rock Center. Koppel has war coverage experience going all the way back to Vietnam, but it seems unlikely that he would ever have been hired for NBC had Williams’ not started his own prime time show. That way, the show can carry the cost of Koppel while Nightly gets an extra benefit. Koppel lost his way during the last days of his tenure on Nightline and during the time he was on Discovery. He proved what happens when you give a supremely confident person too much air time. Given this free rein, he sounded like he thought he was Secretary of State who just happened to be giving his views through the medium of his own show. If they use Koppel properly, as they did with this story, he’ll do fine. If they let him roam free, or try to turn him into some sort of grandfather expert, his talents will be wasted and the audience will suffer. Though he didn’t quite make the point with enough emphasis, it is clear that the US is in a strange and dangerous situation leaving so many civilians behind without guns and tanks, right there, to protect them. Why are we doing this? It seems it is more important to get the troops out of Iraq, as a geo-political point, than it is to give those staying behind reasonable protection. This is a situation that could come back to haunt the US in a big way. What happens if there is a war with Iran? Would they not, as a first measure, overrun the border with Iraq and either kill or take hostages thousands of Americans? Given how difficult relations with Iran are now and are likely to be in the future, a big gamble is clearly underway, one that deserves the attention of all major news outlets. Doug Terry, 12.11.11 |
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