NBC Is Investing “In Arguably The Most Important Corner Of The World”

In a Daily Nightly blog post, NBC News president Steve Capus talks about NBC’s new Beirut bureau and mentions today’s comments by Ted Koppel:

“We made an important announcement at NBC News today. Rather than cutting back our international coverage, as has been the norm in the news business for far too long, we invested in arguably the most important corner of the world. NBC News has established a bureau in Beirut, Lebanon, and our highly-regarded correspondent Richard Engel will be the bureau chief.

We announced this on a day when Ted Koppel lobbed a grenade of sorts in the direction of the network news divisions, complaining that international coverage had no place in network news. While that may be the case in some of the shops Mr. Koppel is familiar with, it is not the case at NBC News. Our track record speaks for itself and the viewers have responded favorably by making this network the leading news division in America. It is a network, by the way, that has placed enormous emphasis on covering the world.” Here’s the rest of the message…