Category: Media

Ted Koppel may anchor ABC’s “This Week”

Ted Koppel

My “Beat the Press” colleague Callie Crossley has the best idea for George Stephanopoulos’ replacement on ABC’s “This Week”: Gwen Ifill, who would have been a far better choice to succeed the late Tim Russert on “Meet the Press” than David Gregory — predictably — has proved to be.

But if an Ifill hire isn’t in the works, we might get the next best thing. The Politico’s Mike Allen reports that ABC is negotiating with legendary “Nightline” anchor Ted Koppel, now in busy semi-retirement, to moderate “This Week” three Sundays a month.

Koppel was one of the finest broadcast journalists of his generation — the successor to Murrow and Cronkite to a far greater extent than any of the folks who have anchored the network evening newscasts in the post-Cronkite era. He’s a tough interviewer and would bring unparalleled gravitas to the job. Ducking a question from Ted Koppel is not the same as ducking a question from Jake Tapper, Terry Moran or anyone else.

I do have one reservation. After Russert’s death in 2008, I thought retired anchor Tom Brokaw was an excellent choice to fill the moderator’s slot on an interim basis. Instead, Brokaw seemed cranky, sour and bored.

The Brokaw lesson is that it would be great to have Koppel back — but only if he’s prepared to bring his “A” game.

Photo (cc) by Tim Brauhn and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Globe loses a political editor

The Boston Globe’s deputy national political editor, Foon Rhee, is leaving the paper this Friday to take a job at the Sacramento Bee, according to a copy of an internal e-mail obtained by Media Nation. The e-mail, from Washington bureau chief Chris Rowland, is as follows:

Foon Rhee, the Globe’s deputy national political editor, will be departing after more than five years at the newspaper to take a job as associate editor at the Sacramento Bee, serving on the editorial board and writing editorials, columns, and analysis pieces. There is no positive way to spin this, so I won’t try: it is wretched news for the Washington Bureau, and he will be deeply missed. Foon is a talented and invaluable editor, lending a strong hand on assignment and story editing of our Washington report, and offering excellent news judgment accumulated over a career that has emphasized political coverage. He also is an Internet news blogger extraordinaire, almost single-handedly writing the Political Intelligence blog on a minute-by-minute basis, all day long. He is blazingly fast, and he routinely gets news out to readers of boston.com much more quickly than the wires or cable television. Foon has occupied his current post since August 2007, joining the national political desk in time to work on the dramatic 2008 presidential election. Prior to that, he served three years as the Globe’s city editor, overseeing coverage of vital metro stories like the Big Dig ceiling collapse and the Haleigh Poutre case. Former metro editor Carolyn Ryan brought him to that job in 2004 from the Raleigh News and Observer, where Foon was local news editor and then political editor. He previously held reporting jobs at the Charlotte Observer. Foon graduated from Duke University and he is a big Blue Devils fan, to the serious dismay of various Tar Heels in the newsroom. As he journeys now to the land of sunshine and movie-star governors, Foon will also be moving closer to family members, who live in Oakland. His last day at the Globe will be this Friday, Jan. 8. Please join me in wishing Foon the best of luck and congratulations before he leaves Morrissey Boulevard and hops on the Pike, westbound.

— Chris

Media round-up: Losing our religion

A few local media tidbits for your perusal:

• The Boston Globe’s Michael Paulson, who may be the country’s best religion reporter working at a mainstream news organization, is taking a new position at the paper. According to the Boston Phoenix’s Adam Reilly, Paulson has been named city editor, reporting to new metro editor Jen Peter. I share Reilly’s hope that this doesn’t mean the Globe has reduced its commitment to serious coverage of religion.

• Local political junkies rejoice: Peter Lucas is back on the beat. A longtime reporter for the Phoenix and the Boston Herald, Lucas disappeared into the state bureaucracy for several decades. He has now re-emerged, and will write a twice-weekly column for the Lowell Sun, according to Jon Keller. I once had the privilege of hearing Lucas’ hilarious retelling of the “White Will Run” incident Keller describes that nearly brought a premature end to Lucas’ reporting career. I look forward to reading his Sun column.

• Sharp-eyed Universal Hubster Adam Gaffin flags a tidbit from Boston Radio Watch hinting that Greater Boston may be getting yet another talk station — WXKS (AM 1430), owned by Clear Channel. Given its weak signal, it presumably would not pose much of a threat to WRKO (AM 680), WTKK (96.9 FM) or WWZN (AM 1510) — the last a liberal station that itself is no great shakes when it comes to having a listenable signal.

    Boston Media Tweeters goes 1.0

    Boston Media Tweeters today exits beta and is ready for prime time.

    What is it? It’s a wiki that lists Greater Boston journalists, including independent bloggers engaged in some form of journalism. I’ve made it a permanent addition to the Media Nation navigation bar, and I hope it will grow into a useful directory.

    Feel free to add yourself or someone else. And enjoy.

    Why Climategate doesn’t matter (VII)

    Click on photo for GlobalPost slideshow

    The series explained.

    Ashar Chor, an island that’s part of the desperately poor nation of Bangladesh, is literally drowning, as rising seas eat away at the shore. Within 25 to 30 years, according to GlobalPost, the island could be gone.

    “Ten years ago we lived three kilometers farther out to what is now sea, but now we have to move our houses back once or twice a year as the sea takes more of the island,” according to Deb Mondol, described in the GlobalPost report as someone who has worked on the island for 15 years.

    The GlobalPost report consists mainly of a photo essay by Khaled Hasan, who provides graphic evidence of Ashar Chor’s watery fate. But the island is far from being the only part of Bangladesh being affected by global warming. Earlier this year, Anuj Chopra wrote in U.S. News & World Report that Bangladesh’s fresh water is being contaminated by sea water, ruining drinking-water supplies and rice paddies.

    Bangladesh has been identified by the Global Climate Risk Index as the country most threatened by climate change. But unlike rising industrial powerhouses like China and India, whose output of carbon dioxide rivals that of the United States, Bangladesh contributes very little to global warming. In 2008 Fakhruddin Ahmed, the then-head of Bangladesh’s interim government, was quoted in the Guardian:

    There is every reason to feel angry and upset. The least developed are suffering the most. It is unfair. We are suffering the most from climate change, but we did not contribute [to it] at all. We are prepared to do our part, but we require, and demand, access to a large amount of investment, resources and technologies that will be needed to adapt.

    According to GlobalPost, Bangladesh has asked that the industrialized countries reduce their CO2 emissions by as much as 40 percent over the next 15 years — a goal that is almost certainly unattainable. Yet if the reduction is not achieved, Ashar Chor may disappear. And the suffering of Bangladesh will grow.

    All posts in this series.

    How to write a lede

    Thomas MacMillan writes in the New Haven Independent:

    Michael Chaves was a “lumper”: He worked as a laborer for long-haul truckers and slept in their trailers. Dale Anderson was a lumper too. One night they were hanging out at a truck stop when Anderson, drunk, urinated on the spot where Chaves slept. They argued, and Chaves beat him to death with a bat.

    That’s the story Chaves told to police in Phoenix, Arizona.

    And that’s one hell of a good way to begin.

    Are you a Boston media tweeter?

    I’ve started a wiki called Boston Media Tweeters. I’ve seeded it with a few obvious choices so that you can tell how it should be formatted. Depending on how it goes, I may make it a permanent part of Media Nation. So, please, if you fit the criteria (you must be engaged in journalism of some sort, and I won’t allow institutional feeds), go ahead and add yourself to the list.