Former Nightline host Ted Koppel will use an op-ed appearing in Sunday's Washington Post to compare the current state of cable news to financial swindler Bernie Madoff and to express “nonpartisan sadness” over the success of Fox News and MSNBC. The veteran journalist touted the suspension of Keith Olbermann for donating to Democratic congressional candidates as “a whimsical, arcane holdover from a long-gone era of television journalism when the networks considered the collection and dissemination of substantive and unbiased news to be a public trust . ” Attacking Fox and MSNBC for bias, he even compared, ” This is to journalism what Bernie Madoff was to investment: He told his customers what they wanted to hear, and by the time they learned the truth, their money was gone .” Koppel expressed the not exactly original wish of many journalists to return to a time when only a few network and reporters were the final arbiters of news: “The commercial success of both MSNBC and Fox News is a source of nonpartisan sadness for me.” read more
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Ted Koppel Compares Cable News to Bernie Madoff, Hypes His ‘Nonpartisan Sadness’