Ted Koppel -- The Right Question

Way back in the ‘60’s, I was appointed head of program development for the American Broadcasting Company – ABC. We were tasked with assembling a whole new staff for the newsroom. So I looked at who was available – 50 or sixty applications in total, as I recall  -- and I began the process. This one falls under the heading of “You Never Know Who You’re Going to Know.”

I filled three spots right away…Jim Herriot, Stuart Klein, Charles Osgood (names you may not “click” on, but provided nonetheless to add a little flavor). The rest were part of a rather lengthy process that came down to the last one on a Friday afternoon.

GLORIOUS SUMMER DAY. Everybody heading up Highway 95 to vacation homes or a resort rendezvous somewhere in northern Connecticut. I was looking forward to joining them.

I got a call from Jim Herriot (just added to the payroll) and he said “Frank, I need you to do me a favor. I’d like you to meet a friend of mine over here at WNC radio. So I said “OK, great….but not this afternoon. I’m about to get in the car and head up to the house at Rogers Lake.”

“Frank, I would consider it an honor if you could wait till after the traffic and meet this young man tonight. He’s a copy boy…very young…but brilliant.”

Delay my vacation for a copy boy?! I gave in. “OK, Jim. Send him over…but tell him to hurry, would ya?”

3:30…4:30… 5 o’clock…He arrives, escorted in by my secretary. This KID. He looked at me, extended his hand and said “Mr. Maguire, I’m Ted Koppel. I’m here for the interview.”

I had reservations – concerns about how long this interview was going to take and a reserved spot on the lake, in the sun, amidst the silence. In spite of all these weighty distractions, the kid impressed me. He really impressed me.

“Tell you what, Ted. If you’ll come over Monday or Tuesday, we’ll set up an audition for you and we’ll see what happens. I can’t promise any more than that, but we’ll see.”

“Thank you, Mr. Maguire.”

And he left.

I got in the car, picked up my already seething wife, hit the road (I 95) to Rogers Lake and spent the weekend swimming and water skiing and forgetting about the demands and responsibilities that awaited me come Monday morning.

I showed up at work on Monday, ready for the deluge. There was a tape box on my desk -- one of the old reel-to-reels that were not old in those days. I opened it to find a note that said “Mr. Maguire, I didn’t want to impose, so I did my own audition over the weekend.

Suitably impressed by the boy’s initiative, I took the tape upstairs and put it on the viewing machine.

In the background you could hear crowds shouting and laughing…and you could hear a sound that upon further viewing revealed itself to be the sound of uniformed Neo-Nazis goose-stepping thru the crowd.

Ted Koppel, had gone up to Yorktown (east side, New York). He had taken his tape recorder – called a “Neewer” in those days -- and was stolidly interviewing a group of individuals who were becoming ever more incensed and angry at his interruption of their glorious Hate Rally.

As Ted’s distinctively measured questions probed deeper, the angry heat of the crowd intensified noticeably. It was clear that he was in greater danger with every question asked. The leader of the rally pushed through the melee to confront Koppel.

“You better get outta here, because the way this is going, I can’t be held responsible for what’s going to happen to you.”

The combined magnitude of stomping boots, shouted epithets and chanted slogans was now deafening.  The ill will and ill wind was palpable.

Koppel, cool as he could be, looks the Nazi leader square in the eye and says calmly…

“Alright sir. I’ll leave. But I just have one more question for you.”

“What’s the question? ONE question. What is it?

“Can you tell me who the President of the United States is?”

Marching. Crowd shouting. Silence from the leader.

Koppel waits the perfect number of moments, microphone extended. He then draws it back to his chin, faces the camera and calmly asserts

“This is Ted Koppel…ABC News.”

Ted did a lot of things instinctively (and instructionally) in this, his first recorded interview. He succeeded in making the microphone and the background noise part of the story. He brought that story straight to the audience unfiltered and direct…and in the midst of it all, he emerged as the cool, collected voice of truth and enlightenment. At the ripe young age of 23, he had set a standard for others to follow.

I said to my secretary, “Get that kid over here immediately.” And I hired him.

My boss asked me what I was doing hiring a 23 year old kid…A 23 YEAR OLD KID…for the radio network. I looked at him and said,  “Leonard, the kid’s name is Ted Koppel. You’re going to hear that name a lot more. He’s good – one of the best you’re likely to see – ever.”

My boss growled “Good. Then he won’t have any trouble getting a job after you fire him. Do it now.”

I refused. I played the tape right there in the office. When it was over, he looked at me and uttered a single word:

“OK.”

Beware assumptions, uninformed assessments, judgments based on appearance. Experience is not defined, or determined, or limited by length of years. And before you start that looking-down-shaking-your-head dismissal…I know, you already know that. But it certainly doesn’t hurt to be reminded from time to time of how valuable an informed decision can be. 

 At 23, Ted Koppel had amassed a resume which more than qualified him to ask the right questions and get the important answers. I gave him a chance to impress me…and he did, along with everyone else he came into contact with throughout the course of his storied career. Ted is now a legend -- an icon in the mold of Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, and many others before him. And I’m really glad I didn’t fire him.