Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made Public - Hardcover

Koppel, Ted

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375410775 ISBN 13: 9780375410772

Publisher: Knopf, 2000

Synopsis

One of America's most admired television newsmen now gives us an intimate chronicle of the final year of the twentieth century. In his engrossing narrative, the year's personalities and events not only are themselves made vivid but also lead to wide-ranging discussions of the past and of expectations of things to come.

Here, closely observed from an insider's viewpoint, are the significant matters of 1999--from the Clinton impeachment and the war in Kosovo to the mass-marketing of Viagra. Here are the people (both on and off camera) who made the news--from Slobodan Milosevi“c to Hillary Rodham Clinton to Michael Jordan to John F. Kennedy Jr. to King Hussein.

And Koppel's book moves on yet another level as events trigger memories of his own past, providing a more personal resonance to his telling of the history we all share. He takes us back to the England in which he lived until he was thirteen. He revisits his powerful experiences as an interviewer investigating prison abuses and probing the violence in our schools. He discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the media; he talks about racial intolerance, about brutality toward homosexuals, about the absence of political leadership. He also examines such cultural phenomena as our obsession with celebrity and the impact of great theater and overhyped movies.

        Here is the voice we know from Nightline--intelligent, curious, opinionated, witty, concerned--reminding us in entertaining and thought-provoking ways that even the most public events reverberate in our private lives.  

About this title

Review:

The title of Ted Koppel's memoir, Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made Public, promises opinions that its author wouldn't deliver on camera, where he's been the anchor of ABC's popular Nightline program since 1980. And, indeed, he's blistering at times in this book, which is essentially a daily journal from 1999. That year began between President Clinton's impeachment by the House of Representatives and his trial in the Senate. Here's Koppel delivering his prognosis of the situation: "Whichever way it goes, it will leave a nasty aftertaste. The President and First Lady will speak piously of national reconciliation, while their loyalists ram the rockets' red glare up the tailpipes of the right-wing fanatics, who have confused low morals with high crimes." Koppel's comments are not always so interesting, but he's reliably candid. He mentions that Jordan's late King Hussein "had his share of adulterous relationships," that Dan Quayle "is not stupid. He is also likable. But you would feel uncomfortable serving under him in a platoon," and that Henry Hyde once informed him privately that "he was incontinent following his prostate surgery."

There's no particular theme to the book; these pages simply collect the thoughts of an important newsman during the course of a year (whose noteworthy events included not just the Clinton trial but also NATO's war with Serbia). Sometimes they're pompous: "I'm off for a meeting with Bill Bradley. It's at his request, which is a clear signal that he's running for the presidency." Sometimes they're funny: "Let's combine all the awards ceremonies for the communications and entertainment industries and name that one event after the single piece of equipment used by all of us--the microphone. I suggest calling the occasion 'the Phonies.'" Koppel is occasionally offbeat, as when he compares George W. Bush to Vanna White, and often informative, as when he's recommending books like Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden or Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (which he once gave as a gift to Clinton). Off Camera is an eclectic package of thoughts and diversions that will by turns intrigue, frustrate, and entertain readers. --John J. Miller

About the Author:

Ted Koppel, a thirty-seven-year veteran of ABC News, has been anchor of Nightline since March 1980. He has won every significant television award, including thirty-two Emmys, six Peabodys, nine Overseas Press Club awards, two George Polk Awards, and two Sigma Delta Chi Awards. Before creating Nightline, he was a foreign, domestic, and war correspondent and bureau chief for ABC, and its chief diplomatic correspondent. He is the author, with Marvin Kalb, of In the National Interest. He lives with his wife in Maryland.

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0375410775
• ISBN 13: 9780375410772
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336