Day 2: Special Presentation: Interview of Ted Koppel by David Shedd
After a brief introduction by Mr. Jardines, Ted Koppel, Managing Editor, Discovery Channel and former anchor of ABC News, is interviewed by Mr. David Shedd, Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Policy, Plans, and Requirements, ODNI.
Mr. Jardines mentions that in order to continue the momentum gained by this conference is to repeat events like this as well as to engage others. “We are all responsible for carrying this momentum forward.”
In the introduction of the upcoming interview, he mentions that he flipped the tables, he thought it would be more interesting to have the spy interview the journalist.
Mr. Kopple mentions that when he started out there were three networks and if you wanted to reach the American people, that was how you had to do it. The time between when something was written and filmed and when it was aired was 2-3 days. You had to assume that things may have changed before you were able to get on the air. When he was embedded with the military in Iraq the time between filming and airing was only 2.5 seconds. He finds that we are expected to provide the information immediately. He thinks news has changed from what is most important to what is most recent.
Mr. Shedd mentions that bloggers are currently providing that instant information.
The discussion moves to evaluation of resources. The who, what and why (motivations, etc).
Mr. Koppel mentions the three types of government reaction to information: dictatorship, theocracy, democracy (capitolism). Once you determine the type of govt you can determine the motives. He mentions that journalist used to think they had a mission: to bring the most important thing to the American audience. Then came 60 minutes, which was the first news program to make money. Now what is driving the information is economics. Demographics drive the news today. A sponsor will pay more that 5 times for a show which will reach the 20-30 year old demographic than for a show that will reach the 50 year old demographic.
Because of the variaty of media outlets, world leaders can chosse the outlet that is most sympathetic to their point of view.
Mr. Shedd has noticed the dismissal of Open Source information in the Intelligence community and he is hoping that it will change.
Opens for questions.
Q: Asks about different angles on a story and bias amongst different news media.
Koppel: He says that the information needs to be assessed and triangulated. We tend to be naturally suspicious of information that comes to us too easy. We have to assess that that information supplier has an agenda. Everyone has an agenda. The first thing to do is try to figure out what the agenda is.
Q: How can there be a reconciliation between the press and IC over openess and leaks?
Koppel: The only safe way for him to deal with information is not to give much thought unless it has been demonstrated that the story would put lives at risk. By and large his assumption is that once he has identified the accuracy that his job is to publish it. No one knows what reactions to certain media will be, it is not predictable.
Q: Now that we can see conflict and war as it happens, how has it changed the American “stomach” to handle such crisis?
Koppel: Just because there is the ability to broadcast live, it is not good journalism. Good journalism requires analysis, context, editing and consideration.
Q: How do you assess the media’s ability to recruit and hire persons with the correct skills (linguist and cultural knowledge)?
Koppel: The media is having the same problem that the Intelligence Community is having (budgets, etc). In the past journalists required more experience. Journalists now don’t cover as much foreign policy because the demographics don’t demand it.
Q: Are we looking at the death of journalism?
Koppel: I don’t think so. I didn’t read the NYT at 15 every day or watch the television news. When I married and had children and has worries, I looked to the best sources I could find to help me with those problems. I think we are living in one of the most dangerous times and I think we are dealing with it in the most inept way I had every seen. When things get bad enough, elements of the American public will start looking for reliable sources of information, there will be some reliable blogs reaching audiences of a few thousand but there will also be reliable newspapers, etc. There will always be people in this country who want good, solid information. there is a lot of stuff we have to wade through to get to the good stuff.
My last word as a blogger: this was a terrific interview and I could not capture half of it. I would reccomend looking for this on video either on the DNI website or on CSPAN.
