Customer Reviews

Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made Public

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Ted Koppel, host of ABC's "Nightline" television show, presents a personal journal in which he muses on the daily events which took place during 1999. His comments range from the insightful and controversial to the personal and mundane. Among other topics, the reader will learn Koppel's thoughts on such things as the state of American journalism -"a sort of competitive screeching;" on the United States Army - more of a buraucracy than an effective fighting force; on a survey of college student's sexual attitudes - shocked that 60% don't consider oral sex as sexual relations; on the weather - irritated that forecasters have to exaggerate by including heat and wind chill indexes.

The book is a quick read. It is an intimate, if somewhat tedious, look at the man millions of Americans think they know through his television persona. Those looking for a well reasoned analysis of the major events of the closing year of the century will be disappointed. Those who can take the book for what it is may find it mildly entertaining.

Mr. Ted Koppel is easily one of the most respected journalists we have the pleasure of listening to and watching almost daily. He has honed his craft for 36 years, and has anchored "Nightline" for nearly 20 years. If peer recognition is used as a measure of his contribution and talent, 32 Emmy Awards, 6 Peabody Awards, 9 Overseas Press Awards, and several others clearly demonstrate he is held in high regard.

As the book takes place in a daily entry format, it is not as fluid as more traditional prose, and Mr. Koppel clearly enjoyed having some fun while documenting the remarkable events that a successful career, that is his, entails. I refer specifically to his asides about his food shopping at Giant Supermarkets. These light diversions are at times extremely funny and serve to demonstrate a wit that I was not familiar with. Even though they reside on competing networks, he clearly could step in for Andy Rooney if the occasion arose.

The thoughts recorded over the year of 1999 are in the main serious by themselves, and in the specifics of the topics he describes. He is brutally candid about an enormous range of issues, and this is the only reason I can think of that would cause some readers to not like this book. I still believe his insights are valuable even if one or more may not be in line with your own.

If you are a supporter of President Clinton, you will not like this book. Mr. Koppel has strong feelings about what a President should be, what a leader is, and Mr. Clinton does not meet any of them. The Clintons evidently feel the same, as when Elie Wiesel asked that Mr. Koppel be one of his 5 friends at a dinner for him at The Whitehouse, the invitation was never sent. Though Mr. Koppel never expected the invitation to be honored, it clearly offended Mr. Wiesel, and demonstrated the pettiness that The White House can enjoy.

I enjoyed the format of the book as he spoke briefly in his entries as measured by length, by expressed more understanding of his chosen topics than many books on the same subjects convey. In 3 paragraphs he flays foreign policy for the contradiction in terms it often is, and in slightly more space he demonstrates how strange the attitudes toward Mr. Clinton have been. There were a series of questions asked by pollsters, and not one was ambiguous in expressing the thoughts of those asked; "the majority (73-79%) of the American people are perfectly content to have a President whom they regard as having low moral and ethical standards, who is not a positive role model for young people and who is neither honest nor trustworthy, but who appears, figuratively speaking, to be bringing home the bacon." Former Democratic Governor of New York Mr. Mario Cuomo said, "Yeah, I wouldn't trust this guy in Church, and I wouldn't let him date my Sister, but he's a terrific President." One has to wonder which of Mr. Clinton's frailties Mr. Cuomo lacked that kept him from seeking the Presidency.

We learn who he believes constitutes a leader, Winston Churchill, George Washington, and why even leaders who may have had faults, like King Hussein, were still leaders as they routinely did that which Clinton has never done, put the people they represent, their Country, ahead of themselves, their own interests.

He speaks eloquently on issues of race, commenting on our taking in 20,000 refugees from the former Yugoslavia, and wondering will the same ever be the case with a similar exodus from the Continent of Africa.

He says more than once that we may someday refer to the present years as the "prewar years". He also shares the little known secret that the rest of the world does not necessarily think America is quite as great as we find ourselves. Kosovo and its surroundings, and inhabitants illustrate beautifully, how our actions are perceived by those we believe we are helping. It's the old adage that perception is all that matters.

The book is opinionated but not arrogant. Mr. Koppel has strong views, but he also has the first hand experience and knowledge to back his statements. You may not like some of what he has to say, but you will be hard pressed to debate and defeat him. I do find it very upsetting that so many quotes in the book have been paraded about so far from the context they were in, as to make them not only meaningless and irrelevant to how they actually appear in the book, but also are denigrating to those people who are mentioned. Mr. Koppel has strong negative feelings about the actions of some, he never wrote in the humiliating manner some of the selective outtakes of the book suggest.

As I said earlier, excellent, but not perfect, however, books like this are so frustratingly rare, it is even more valuable that he took the time to write it. He did not write for the money, or for the attention. He has the former from nearly 4 decades of hard work, and the latter he has every evening.

A very well informed, articulate man, who has delivered a work that is at times sobering, is thoroughly engaging, and thought provoking.

Unconditionally recommended.

I enjoyed this book of Ted Koppel's private thoughts. One never thinks about the tearful goodbye's to a reporter's loved ones before leaving on a dangerous assignment. Nor considers the unpleasant conditions which much be endured while reporting such a story. I found that the book put a much more human face on neat and tidy reports we see on the evening news. It was also interesting to hear Ted's take on the major news stories of the year. Opinions that could not be shared on national TV.

It gave a certain level of comfort to know that a person who has such control over what we hear of the news, is really just a regular person who goes to the store, gets gas for his car and is excited about the birthday of his grandson.

A quick read. I skimmed some parts about the Chechen's. But then isn't what he said in the book after all. We, as a nation ,are not too interested in that news.

...The dust cover should be a clue that this book is trivial. Here is Koppel, wearing a leather jacket and holding a stick. If that photo interests you, you will love this book. It is filled with self-indulgent information about Koppel and his grandchildren. It would have been a better book, perhaps, had Koppel chosen to write about the leather jacket and the stick.
Readers who are able to overlook Koppel's arrogance will find little insight into international events. First, these events are quite dated. Kosovo, Monica and Viagra are not fresh, riveting subjects. Secondly, Koppel doesn't have the time to give us thoughtful insight. He appears to be jotting down a few bedtime thoughts about his day. And so often his predictions and views of current events prove wrong.
What I came away with is the realization that much of our daily news stories are fleeting, insignificant events. ...

Ted Koppel. That voice, the music, the graphics. I grew into television news with Ted-- though I called him Mr. Koppel in our private, if fictional, chats about world events. From that stage, I somehow expected a giant to emerge from the pages of "Off Camera", and that giant of a man should know all and tell all because, who could do it better? This is not that sort of book. It does not gossip; it does not lie. It is Mr. Koppel, though, and he's got a great deal to let us in on.

What works in this diarist's format is the jangling juxtapositions between waitng for the caller I.D. guy and musing over, "Oh, incidentally, Boris Yeltsin threatened NATO with nuclear war yesterday, if it doesn't stop bombing Yugoslavia. Everybody assumes he's kidding" (92). This sort of mingling of the mundane and the geopolitical reminds us that we cannot wholly escape either world-- it is as reckless to ignore the din of geopolitics as it is to ignore the phone bill. He's saying, "Hey! I, Mr. Big Shot Nightline Guy, have to deal with the daily dumb stuff. Why don't YOU try reading a newspaper?" And yes, he's a little testy on this. And no, he doesn't hold out much hope for what Americans have become. ....

"Off Camera" is the voice of Ted Koppel: wry, commanding, knowing. There are spurts of dark humor (the moments of a life stolen while exchanging 32 cent stamps), anger, wonderment, acceptance and love. It is the writing of a journalist and the musings of a man whose sorted out his own mortality. He's a Mr. Koppel who doesn't much like President Clinton either (he'd be dishonest to say otherwise and his reasoning is solid--even though I think he's wrong). In the end, it's Ted Koppel and there are lessons to be learned. Though not a great book, this is one worth owning.

For those who would read this book for piercing insights into the political and social milieu of 1999...fuhgeddaboutit! Instead, read "Off Camera" for what it is...a man committed to recording every day's activities and thoughts. If that means he talks about digging a Land Rover out of mud in Pristina, or if it's a personal war he has going with the local supermarket over their incomprehensible pricing policies, then that's what Ted's going to write about. I found it refreshing and damned funny at times. Pompous...well, maybe. But his insights into the changing face of news/entertainment through the decades is on target and scalding. And his disappointments over the rampant apathy of the TV-viewing American public is heartfelt and geniune.

All in all, I would say if you're at all involved in journalistic pursuits or just a news junkie, by all means get this book. If you're looking for a quick beach read...it works on that level, too.

Nightline anchor and legendary tele-journalist Ted Koppel set out on January 1, 1999 with an interesting idea. He would write one entry per day in a diary that would record the events in his own life and in the world around him.

Admirable.

Koppel's notes on the goings-on in 1999 seem oddly distant in this post-911 world of 2005. Was the last year of the century just passed really quite as innocent as it seems in this record of a journalist and his travels across the world? That was the biggest point of notice I came away with from this remarkable read: exactly how much our society and the greater world has altered in so small a time.

That said, it is still worthwhile to read through Koppel's thoughts on the happenings of that year and to gain perspective on all that went on in a top-ranking network journalist's life. In those twelve months, Koppel traveled to at least four continents, met with dozens of noteworthies, and also managed to fit in time at home, where he tells us of the joys of something small like a redecorating project after having spent so many of the previous weeks in and out of war zones, jets, vans, and studios. Koppel is never shy about giving his opinion and sometimes I admired his views, at other times he frankly ticked me off. That's probably someplace in his job description.

I've heard Ted Koppel is retiring soon, and I wonder if he intends to devote more time to writing once his days in front of the camera are done? If this book is any indication of what that output might be, then I hope so.

Ted Koppel's Off Camera is a caring and informative view into just that, his thoughts and daily activities off camera. Mr Koppel provides us daily journal entries from the year 1999. From Monica to the strains of reporting from Kosovo. I loved reading this book.

The strangest myth of journalism is that in order to strive for objectivity, journalists purge themselves (or should purge themselves) of all opinions. Anyone whose ever read an article or seen a news broadcast knows that journalists have opinions, and they express them in all sorts of ways. The way Ted Koppel does in OFF CAMERA is not one of the more typical ways. Here he comments in a journal on the events of 1999, holding little back and stripping his opinions from some of the constraints and codes of his profession.

All that isn't striking. What is is the degree to which Koppel is cynical about almost everything. Just about anything of public importance that catches his attention enough to make it into this journal is worthy of disparagement. Take his thoughts on the Kosovo War. At first he disparages the US's motives for getting involved, while later he seems to lament the extent to which problems there came to be ignored. He concludes before thew air war was fought that the NATO could not win that way and that a ground war was inevitable, then forgets to mention that it worked. And so on.

But this is interesting. It is interesting to hear someone (Koppel's voice adds to the experience of listening to the audio book version) whose job it is to cover the news, speak with such disdain and even despair about the news. While bleak, Koppel's opinions are also interesting. He has a journalist's flair for putting a story together. I would happily read more of his commentary should he chose to write more.

OFF CAMERA is not inspirational - it isn't meant to be. But it is worth hearing (or reading).

My first thought in his first couple entries was that he was trying a little to hard to be funny ala Dennis Miller or Jay Leno. However, then I realized that he wasn't, he was just blurting out his thoughts from each day (and almost every day).

I feel there was not much cohesion throughout the book. He spends a lot of time on the war in Kosovo, as that was a big event during that year. However, he puts in little tidbits about his growing up and his new house or something irrelevant. Even though it was meant to be his personal thoughts on various topics, I felt he should have organized the material a little bit.

On the good side, it was interesting hearing about the difficulties of being a reporter during the war, and getting some of that insider information. Similarly, it was interesting hearing his perspective from having been around for a while in the journalism business.

Overall, I made it through the whole book, but every once in a while while listening to it (Audio CD version), I would think, "Now why did he include that?" I feel this work could have been improved through some editting and some thoughtful exclusions or reorganization of the material.