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Ted Koppel, former anchorman of ABC's Nightline, is currently the managing editor of Discovery Networks. Koppel, who stayed with ABC for over 40 years, is the recipient of 37 Emmy Awards, seven Peabody Awards, and 10 DuPont-Columbia Awards. He was visiting Beirut in June as part of a US-embassy sponsored media workshop hosting Arab and Lebanese press executives. MEB Journal Managing Editor Habib Battah caught up with the veteran newsman as he was preparing to shoot a program about Iran, with plans to meet with Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon before his trip.
You have said you hope to meet with the leader of Hezbollah for your upcoming program. Does the American government's ban on talking to Hezbollah and its labeling of it as a terrorist organization concern you?
First of all I don't believe there is a ban against talking to them. I'm sure the administration might prefer that American journalists not to talk to organizations they have classified as terrorist organizations. But you know something, I remember when I was a boy growing up in England the newspapers were full of stories about this terrorist organization called the Mamal in Kenya. Years later I was diplomatic correspondent for ABC and I traveled to Kenya and one of the former leaders of the Mamal was a man named Jomo Kenyatta. He was then president of Kenya. I know that Menachem Begin was once part of an organization that the British government called terrorist organization.
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People who are terrorists one day become our negotiating partners the
next day
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I interviewed Mr. Begin when he was prime-minister of Israel. I was here in Lebanon more than 20 years ago and interviewed Yasser Arafat at a time when the US government has designated the PLO, and Arafat in particular, as a terrorist organization and a terrorist leader. In years to come, he was welcomed to the White House in the company of his Israeli counterpart. Things change; sometimes people who are terrorists one day become our negotiating partners the next day. I think it's important to learn as much as we can, not only about our friends but also about our adversaries.
What is your view of the US Administration’s treatment of Arab journalists; do you think that the bombing of two Al Jazeera bureaus in two separate countries was just a coincidence?
If you are asking me do I believe that the US military was instructed to specifically target Al Jazeera, I would be horrified if I thought that was true. I don't believe that. Look, I was covering the war in Bosnia some years ago when the military bombed the Chinese Embassy. Do I think they did that deliberately? No. Do I think it was a foolish mistake? Yes. Do I think they had inaccurate maps, yes they did. Sometimes even the greatest technologies in the world require people who -you know, if you don't have a good map you may bomb exactly the precise point that you want to bomb, but maybe if your map is wrong, you think you're bombing one thing but you end up bombing something else.
Can you be a patriot and a journalist at the same time?
Of course.
What kind of stories would you like to see covered in the Middle East?
I think it is perhaps most important at this time to understand why the United States is seen in such a negative light. Why have we been so unsuccessful in presenting what I think most people who have lived and worked in the United States, Arab journalists who have lived there and worked there would agree is true; that fundamentally the United States is a very great country, and that the American people for the most part, are very decent and good people who really want to do the right thing. So why is it that we are seen so negatively by so many people in this region? Clearly that is an area that needs to be remedied and I think one way to remedy it is to make sure that there is understanding, understanding entails communication. I'm a communicator; that's what I do for a living.
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