Koppel leaves 'Nightline' with a message
If you believed the promotions, Ted Koppel's final ''Nightline" was to be a gentle leave-taking, another half-hour with wise Morrie Schwartz, a final dose of the heartwarming stuff. And it was, until the final moment -- when Koppel, true to form, said what he clearly felt was warranted.
''You've always been very nice to me," he told viewers last night, ''so give this new anchor team at 'Nightline' a fair break. If you don't, the network will just put another comedy in this time slot, and then you'll be sorry."
Aha. An admonition to all the right people; a dose of the spit that made Koppel such a formidable interviewer. And what a relief. When Koppel announced that Schwartz, immortalized in Mitch Albom's bestseller, ''Tuesdays With Morrie," would cap off his 25-year ''Nightline" run, it had felt a tad disappointing.
The subject was rich, but entertainment culture has turned Schwartz into a cup of tea for the soul, too soft to serve as a suitable thumb at the news establishment. And it was hard not to want a valedictory I-told-you-so last night, a hard-hitting look at how the news business has changed.
Koppel didn't quite deliver that, though he managed to tweak former ABC News president Roone Arledge, who had pooh-poohed the Morrie story when it first aired on ''Nightline" in 1995. And he gave a gracious nod to the producers who did so much legwork on ''Nightline."
They had helped him carry out his intention with the ''Morrie" story: to deal with death as seriously, as straightforwardly, as any other news subject. It was the same instinct that made Koppel so respected, even as his audience waned: he resisted any pressure to go soft. Through high standards and force of will -- plus an interviewing style that was dogged without being showy -- he established 11:30 p.m. as a time to count on serious news, thoroughly presented.
The revamped ''Nightline," which starts Monday, promises to be heavier on style, broadcast live and anchored by Terry Moran, Cynthia McFadden, and Martin Bashir (of Michael Jackson documentary fame). Producers are promising serious news, and they may well try to deliver. Koppel is right to try to give them a chance.
But they won't have Koppel, a consummate reporter who has done that job to the end. In a broadcast from New Orleans that aired last week, he updated the tale of Rose, a huge, spirited woman whom ''Nightline" had filmed being rescued against her will. She thought the flooding was a plot to drive black people from the city.
Sitting beside Rose in a Mississippi living room, Koppel treated her with the respect he would have shown a head of state. And he added a touch of humanity, the key to why good reporters get good quotes -- and sometimes give them. ''You were a pistol, you know that?" he told her with a smile.
Clearly, he knew what he was talking about.
