Just when we were beginning to confuse Sam Donaldson with MarthaStewart - one of them has been obsessed lately with a stained dressand other dirty laundry - along comes Ted Koppel with a seriesreminding us just how powerful TV news can be.
Broadcast journalism is at its worst when trying to sustain astory despite a dearth of solid new information. It's best whenexposing us to places we otherwise wouldn't go, people we normallywouldn't meet and ideas we usually wouldn't consider.
ABC's (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR) "Nightline in Primetime: Crimeand Punishment," which begins at 9 tonight on WLS-Channel 7 and runsthe next four Thursdays, is just such a program.
Inspired by a renewed push for law and order and drawing fromfour years of "Nightline" reports on the state of our prisons, it isnothing short of sobering. You begin to see that dealing with crimeis not as simple as building more prisons and making their conditionsharsher.
Koppel goes into these dehumanizing places and shows you thehumanity inside. He makes no effort to minimize the prisoners'sometimes horrific crimes, and he also talks to their victims andfamilies, so you never feel like you would want to be as close tothese felons as he is.
With many of those behind bars eventually returned to society,however, the show hints at how the failure to rehabilitate thesecriminals can haunt us.
Next week's edition ups the ante, with Koppel spending a nightin maximum security armed with only his wits and a camera. And whenKoppel asks a convicted murderer who pretends to be Elvis Presleywhether it's necessary to play the fool to survive in prison, you canonly admire his wherewithal.
Successive weeks will take us inside the newest supermaximumfacilities and examine the death penalty we Americans overwhelminglyfavor.
A few years back, we talked to Koppel in his Washington officeand noticed a hanger marked CBS dangling from the back of his door.It turned out the souvenir was sent by a fan and had once belonged toEdward R. Murrow.
It was apropos. If anyone working in TV news today is fit towear Murrow's trenchcoat, it's Koppel.
OUT, OUT, DAMN SPOT: If the creation of "Nightline" is one ofthe the best things to come out of the Iran hostage crisis, thenumbering of days at the end of a newscast for emphasis is not.
Poor ESPN alumnus Keith Olbermann is stuck with that duty,marking the time since the Monica Lewinsky story broke at the end ofhis MSNBC time-slot filler, "White House in Crisis."
The National Journal and USA Today quote Olbermann's Maycommencement speech at his alma mater Cornell that the Lewinsky storygives him "dry heaves."
The endless stories, he said, "make me ashamed, make medepressed, make me cry."
How does he think we feel?
HEY, WE LIKED `TRUMAN': MSNBC and NBC anchor Brian Williams,heir apparent to Tom Brokaw on "The NBC Nightly News," told us hedoesn't think format and the need to fill time is driving the contenton shows such as "White House in Crisis." It's audience-driven, hesaid, meaning we're getting only what we want.
"If `The PBS NewsHour' sold (with viewers), there would be 12 ofthem," Williams said. " `Extra' would be `The NewsHour.' Jim Lehrerwould be making $15 million a year, Letterman money. But it doesn't(sell).
"It's like all those people who swear they finished (the book)Truman by David McCullough. The number of people who tell pollstersthey get their news from the `NewsHour' is in the billions, but theyget smaller audiences every night."
CRISIS POINT: That said, the Lewinsky story dominated themorning news shows last month, according to one report, with 179segments dedicated to it in July. That's more than three times thesegments for the No. 2 story, the Florida fires.
CHANNELING: "Maximum Bob" was ABC's top-rated summer seriesdebut since 1991. Its ratings were especially high in Chicago. Jonathan Taylor Thomas is leaving "Home Improvement" at midseasonbecause he wants to focus on his education. Sideshow Luke Perry iscoming back to "Beverly Hills 90210" because it will have him.Anthony Edwards is staying with "ER" through 2002 because they'repaying him a ton of money.
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