O'Reilly Agrees With Koppel: I 'Ruined' TV Journalism

Former "Nightline" host Ted Koppel told Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly it is his fault that television journalism has become less objective and more sensational, but he did so in the nicest of ways.

On Wednesday's episode of Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor"  the host asked Koppel how he would interview GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump if he were still in the business.

"It's irrelevant how I would do it," Koppel said. "You know who made it irrelevant? You did."

According to Newsmax, Koppel said O'Reilly has changed the television landscape over the past 20 years.

"You took it from being objective and dull to being subjective and entertaining," he said. "And in this current climate, it doesn't matter what the interviewer asks him, Mr. Trump is going to say whatever he wants to say, as outrageous as it may be."

Trump's audience isn't a television audience anyway, Koppel said, but a Twitter audience, where the short messages are kept "nice and simple."
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O'Reilly readily admitted to being one of the TV commentators who have "ruined the country."

"That's true," Koppel calmly replied.

"I have ruined everything," O'Reilly said, but countered that journalists outnumber commentators 50 to 1, so "Maybe the journalists aren't as powerful as they should be."