Ted Koppel On ‘Wildly Opinionated’ Fox, MSNBC: ‘Our Times Require A Little More Serious Objectivity’

The man best known as the longtime anchor of ABC’s Nightline, Ted Koppel, says “wildly opinionated” cable news has left him “saddened,” and he believes viewers deserve–and the times require–“a little more serious objectivity.”

Speaking to Howard Kurtz on CNN, Koppel discussed an article he wrote last fall, calling out opinion hosts like Fox’s Bill O’Reilly and then-MSNBC host Keith Olbermann for creating a culture of partisanship that dimishes all cable news:

“I think there has to be a willingness on the part of the public to accept that journalism is trying to do an honest job of giving them an objective accounting of what’s going on in the world, and an objective appraisal of what’s really important in the world. In the face of what Fox is doing and the face of what MSNBC is doing, there’s no reason for the public to assume anything other than what we’re doing is putting forth our own opinions.”

Koppel also responds directly to a “Special Comment” by Olbermann which accused Koppel of failing to bring objective reporting to the runup to the Iraq war. Watch it here, from CNN:

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