Media

...Kissinger has served as a consultant to "Nightline" and has appeared on the show to deliver his pontifications without challenge by the host...

...When Gaffney said the United States needed to continue testing to ensure the safety of its nuclear weapons, Koppel fumed, "I must tell you, when you start talking about the safety inherent in weapons systems that are designed to wipe out a hundred thousand people, a million people, two million people, I don't know what you're talking about...

...officials or leaders of friendly governments are guests on the program...

...He covered the State Department during the Henry Kissinger years, and was one of the correspondents who allowed themselves to be dazzled by the man...

...Above all, he identifies with U.S...

...He prefers to deal with "players"—the people who count, whose opinions matter, whose role in shaping policy is formal and certified...

...When "Nightline" addressed the efforts of the Nuclear Freeze movement, Kop-pel's hostility was palpable...

...This is good journalism...

...GOLDSTOCK: No, not even organized crime...

...What was the question that required an apology in advance...

...Has it occurred to anyone that it might be true" that Daniloff engaged in "impermissible" activity...

...if something important happens during the day, they look for his exploration on "Nightline...

...KOPPEL: The beginning of the end of what...

...KOPPEL: And you're talking about the end of that...

...KOPPEL: When you use the term "Mob," what are you talking about...

...if he ages well, he's likely to join Walter Cronkite in the pantheon of trusted American media celebrities...

...A viewer might have reached that conclusion—until it finally became clear, a few minutes later, what really was troubling the "Nightline" host: "Secretary Gaffney," Koppel exploded, "to put it very bluntly, you know that what's happening here with this one-sided moratorium is that from a propaganda point of view, the United States is getting its brains kicked in...

...MEDIA Robert Karl Manoff The 'Nightline' Line Ted Koppel, anchor of "Nightline," has built that ABC News late-evening show into a national institution since it first went on the air during the Iranian hostage crisis as "America Held Hostage...

...What was going on here...

...ambassador to Moscow, about the arrest of the American journalist Nicholas Daniloff on charges of espionage, Koppel took pains to make it clear he wished to give no offense: "I don't mean this to sound harsh," he said before one question, and before another, "Forgive me for asking this, but it has to be asked...

...line on nuclear testing...

...GOLDSTOCK: Well, the Mob as we know it today...

...policymakers...

...GOLDSTOCK: I'm saying that if the current move by law enforcement continues, they will not be recognizable in the next five to ten years...

...Koppel projects an image of probity and tough-minded intelligence...

...But Koppel has ariother, less aggressive side...

...With such men (and the few women who appear), Koppel drops the stance of relentless reporter and couches his questions in terms of deference and abiding respect...

...According to some who work for the show, he disagreed not only with the substance of the campaign but also with the idea of mobilizing public opinion to change official policy...

...Koppel has methodically led his source from the grandiose and self-serving claim that "this is the beginning of the end" to the considerably more modest assertion (subsequently also challenged on the program) that the American crime families are "weakening tremendously...

...GOLDSTOCK: I'm talking about the American Mob, which is what Valachi called "Cosa Nostra...

...The best of our journalists work this way, and "Nightline" has often put the process on display...

...It's on view whenever high U.S...

...You're surely not suggesting—I mean, crime obviously isn't going to go away, so what we're talking about here is merely organized crime...

...Was Ted Koppel challenging the official U.S...

...What I'm talking about are the families that have existed in the United States since the 1930s, and I think they are weakening tremendously...

...It's not a question of manners but of politics: "Nightline" pioneered in allowing Soviet officials to present their case directly to the American public, but Koppel tends to greet their remarks with anger, irony, or a heavy display of incredulity...

...Here, boiled down to about half its original length, is a sample of what Koppel can do when he sets his mind to it...

...He is, after all, a player...

...Fast on his feet, precise in his diction, Koppel has made himself, for many viewers, an essential component of every major news story...

...When he talked, for example, with Arthur Hartman, the U.S...

...William A. Dorman, an astute observer of the press and its coverage of foreign affairs, calls this "the journalism of deference...

...He's so good at what he does that Sam Donaldson, ABC's tough-talking White House correspondent, seems almost tongue-tied when he substitutes for Koppel on "Nightline...

...On a recent program, Koppel gave an unusually hard time to an Administration guest—Frank Gaffney, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms-Control Policy, who had been invited to discuss the Soviet moratorium on nuclear testing...

...It's from an exchange with Ronald Goldstock, chief of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force, who appeared on a "Nightline" discussion of the Mafia: GOLDSTOCK: If law-enforcement aggressiveness continues, I think this is the beginning of the end...

...KOPPEL: I want to be sure I underRobert Karl Manoff is co-director of the Center for War, Peace, and the News Media at New York University...

...It wasn't the policy that bothered Koppel but the way it was being sold...

...stand what you're telling me...