Ted Koppel confronts Bill O’Reilly: Interviewing

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In a recent segment on Fox’s The O’Reilly Factor, former longtime ABC News mainstay Ted Koppel told host Bill O’Reilly that he undermines journalistic principles by changing the television landscape from “objective and dull to subjective and entertaining.”

During the segment, O’Reilly asked Koppel what his approach would be if he were to interview Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

“You and I have talked about this general subject many times over the years. It’s irrelevant how I would do it,” Koppel said.

“You know who made it irrelevant? You did. You have changed the television landscape over the past 20 years — you took it from being objective and dull to subjective and entertaining.

And in this current climate, it doesn’t matter what the interviewer asks him; Mr. Trump is gonna say whatever he wants to say, as outrageous as it may be.”

Koppel pointed out that Trump’s audience is not the traditional television viewer, but better suited for Twitter.

“They deal in messages of 140 characters or less, which keeps it nice and simple,” Koppel explained.

“The first way you do it is not in the interview — you do it by some reporting. It’s an old-fashioned concept but I think demonstrating who and what Mr. Trump is and what his policies really amount to is something you don’t do in an interview. He doesn’t answer the questions.”

Koppel explained that Trump ignores “pointed” questions and repeats the same response regarding his policies.

“When was the last time you have heard Donald Trump spell out a real policy on anything other than, ‘We’re gonna be the best, we’re gonna be the greatest, I’m gonna negotiate the best deals you’ve ever seen.’

There is no substance in any of that, and nobody among his followers seems to care about that.”

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