Former ABC “Nightline” anchor and current BBC News contributor Ted Koppel appeared on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” this weekend (check out the fancy new graphics package).
Host Howard Kurtz asked Koppel about the public’s appetite (or lack thereof) for foreign news, as well as his previous comments about the state of cable news:
On Fox News and MSNBC: “If the purpose is to provide some journalism, than I think the journalism require–and our times require–a little more serious objectivity,” Koppel said. “In the face of what Fox is doing or in the face of what MSNBC is doing, there is not a reason for the public to assume anything other than what we are doing is just giving our own opinions.”
On foreign news:
“If you tell people long enough that you don’t have an appetite for foreign news, and you convince yourself that they don’t have an appetite for foreign news, then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”