More than four thousand programs produced and consumed. Some of them were pretty good, a great many of them were forgettable; but a handful may even be worth a book.

Meaning of the quote

In this quote, Ted Koppel, an American journalist, is talking about the many TV shows and programs that have been made and watched by people. He says that while most of these shows are not very memorable, a few of them are actually good enough to be written about in a book.

About Ted Koppel

Ted Koppel is a renowned British-born American broadcast journalist who is best known as the anchor for Nightline, a long-running news program on ABC. He has had an illustrious career, earning numerous awards and accolades, including 25 Emmy Awards, for his work as a foreign and diplomatic correspondent.

More about the author

More quotes from Ted Koppel

To call something an ‘enhanced interrogation technique’ doesn’t alter the fact that we thought it was torture when the Japanese used it on American prisoners, we thought it was torture when the North Koreans used it, we thought it was torture when the Soviets used it. You know, it’s almost the moral equivalent of saying that rape is an enhanced seduction technique.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

More than four thousand programs produced and consumed. Some of them were pretty good, a great many of them were forgettable; but a handful may even be worth a book.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

Emotions get in the way but they don’t pay me to start crying at the loss of 269 lives. They pay me to put some perspective on the situation.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

I have been an unabashed fan of NPR for many years, and have stolen untold excellent ideas from its programming.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

I think we’re glazing eyes all across America.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

The responsibility that I feel is to do as good a job as a journalist as I can possibly do.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

My function is, as objectively and accurately as I can, to present reality to people out there, and doing that as quickly as we do is quite difficult enough, thank you.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

People shouldn’t expect the mass media to do investigative stories. That job belongs to the ‘fringe’ media.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

I have the necessary lack of tact.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

There is something very very special, universal and easily identifiable among all Jews; it is beyond territory, it is something we all have in common.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder. It is a howling reproach.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

In the days of Caesar, kings had fools and jesters. Now network presidents have anchormen.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

There is no more respected or influential forum in the field of journalism than the New York Times. I look forward, with great anticipation, to contributing to its op-ed page.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist

My level of cynicism about the reasons that took us to war against Iraq remain just as well-developed as they were before I went.

Ted Koppel

British-born American broadcast journalist