@@ JEW Ted Koppel, a 'Natural Fit' at NPR and longtime booster of JEW War Criminal Henry Kissinger @@

Common Dreams
January 16, 2006

Ted Koppel: "Natural Fit" at NPR News and Longtime Booster of Henry Kissinger

By Norman Solomon

No doubt many people are glad that Ted Koppel
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Koppel) will become a regular voice on National
Public Radio. He recently ended 25 years with ABC's "Nightline" show amid profuse
media accolades. But what kind of journalist goes out of his way to voice fervent
admiration for Henry Kissinger?

Days ago, NPR announced that Koppel will do several commentaries per month on
"Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered". The Associated Press reported that "he
also will serve as an analyst during breaking news and special events".

There's some grim irony in the statement issued by NPR's senior vice president for
programming: "Ted and NPR are a natural fit, with curiosity about the world and
commitment to getting to the heart of the story. The role of news analyst has been a
tradition on NPR newsmagazines and there is no one better qualified to uphold and
grow that tradition than Ted".

But "the heart of the story" about U.S. foreign policy has often involved deceptions
from Washington. And since Koppel became a prominent journalist, he has been a
fervent booster of one of the most prodigious and murderous deceivers in U.S.
history.

"Henry Kissinger is, plain and simply, the best secretary of state we have had in 20,
maybe 30 years -- certainly one of the two or three great secretaries of state of our
century", Koppel said in an interview (quoted in Columbia Journalism Review,
March/April 1989). Koppel added: "I'm proud to be a friend of Henry Kissinger. He is
an extraordinary man. This country has lost a lot by not having him in a position of
influence and authority".

Ted Koppel was heaping praise on someone who served as a key architect of foreign
policy throughout the Nixon presidency. Kissinger -- whose record as an inveterate
liar was thoroughly documented in Seymour Hersh's 1983 book "The Price of Power:
Kissinger in the Nixon White House" -- orchestrated bloody foreign-policy deceptions
from Southeast Asia to Chile to East Timor.

Henry Kissinger (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger) was the smart guy
behind the horrendous bombing strategy that killed hundreds of thousands of civilians
in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as he held the diplomatic stage.

Henry Kissinger (http://tinyurl.com/cbx7t) was the smart guy who colluded with
General Augusto Pinochet for the September 1973 coup and the subsequent years of
torture and murder in Chile.

And Kissinger was the smart guy who, in his continuing role as secretary of state
after Gerald Ford became president, gave Washington's blessing for Indonesian troops
to invade and occupy East Timor -- with mass-murderous results.

Henry Kissinger was a frequent guest on "Nightline", so reverentially treated by Ted
Koppel that in the summer of 1989 the host turned the moderating role over to the
extraordinary man so he could direct the panel discussion himself. A few years later,
in April 1992, Ted Koppel was telling viewers: "If you want a clear foreign-policy
vision, someone who will take you beyond the conventional wisdom of the moment, it's
hard to do any better than Henry Kissinger".

Koppel's fervent promotion of Henry Kissinger was no anomaly. The longtime ABC
newsman amassed a notable record of banging the drum for U.S. foreign policy when it
counted the most -- in real time, when a crisis was underway.

Asked by Life magazine in 1988 if he'd like to be secretary of state, Ted Koppel
responded affirmatively and touted his qualifications: "Part of the job is to sell
American foreign policy, not only to Congress but to the American public. I know I
could do that".

Ted Koppel made the comment while U.S. foreign policy in Central America included
direct Reagan administration support for a Contra terrorist army in Nicaragua along
with backing for death-squad aligned governments in El Salvador and Guatemala.
Meanwhile, his "Nightline" program regularly gave aid and comfort to policymakers in
Washington.

During the late 1980s, researchers at the media watch group FAIR (where I'm an
associate) conducted a 40-month study of "Nightline", 865 programs in all. The two
most frequent guests were Henry Kissinger and another former secretary of state,
Alexander Haig (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Haig). On shows about
international affairs, U.S. government policymakers and ex-officials dominated the
"Nightline" guest list. American critics of foreign policy were almost invisible.

But Koppel, the program's anchor and managing editor, didn't see a problem. "We are
governed by the president and his cabinet and their people", he fired back. "And they
are the ones who are responsible for our foreign policy, and they are the ones I want
to talk to". Instead of wide-ranging public discourse, Koppel's show was primarily a
conveyor belt for elite opinion at crucial junctures. Later, if he got around to
exposing official deception, he was apt to debunk propaganda that he helped to spread
in the first place.

Back in 1987, Newsweek noted a basic disparity between the image and function of Ted
Koppel: "The anchor who makes viewers feel that he is challenging the powers that be
on their behalf is in fact the quintessential establishment journalist".

In that light -- considering the overall coverage of Washington's foreign-policy
establishment by NPR News -- Ted Koppel does seem like a natural fit.


* Norman Solomon (http://www.normansolomon.com) is a syndicated columnist on media
and politics. His weekly column "Media Beat" (http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=28)
has been in national syndication since 1992. Solomon's new book "War Made Easy: How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death" (http://www.warmadeeasy.com) was
published in early summer 2005. Solomon is the founder and executive director of the
Institute for Public Accuracy (http://www.accuracy.org), a national consortium of
policy researchers and analysts. Norman Solomon is a longtime associate of the media
watch group "Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting" (http://www.fair.org). He is also
senior advisor to the National Radio Project (http://www.radioproject.org/archive),
which produces the weekly public-affairs program ?Making Contact?, heard on 160
noncommercial radio stations in North America.

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