bn.com editor
Ted Koppel's familiar voice imparts a sense of warmth and wisdom as he revisits the major news events of the last years of the 20th century. Koppel also takes listeners beyond the world of Nightline into more private reminiscences of his childhood and his early days as a journalist.
During his thirty-seven-year career with ABC News, Koppel has covered foreign, domestic and war beats, and served as the bureau chief and the network's chief diplomatic correspondent. In this book, he takes a look back at the major events and personalities of 1999. Koppel describes the book as a subjective journal of the twentieth century's final year and some of the memories it triggered. Thankfully, Koppel's memory extends beyond Monica Lewinsky and the ensuing impeachment hearings. In the same subtly opinionated voice Nightline viewers have come to recognize, Koppel comments on everything from Kosovo to JFK, Jr., from Viagra to the first round of the presidential primaries. Within these short, diary-like entries are Koppel's views of television journalism and the influence it has had on the lives of everyday people.
—Rob Stout
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
This is the spoken version of the daily journal--centered around major news events (Clinton's impeachment trial, the war in Kosovo) and his personal reflections on them--that newscaster Koppel began on January 1, 1999. Woven between the news and his opinions are personal tidbits such as reminiscences of his childhood in Germany and England, his fear of growing old, his love for his wife, his bouts with depression, his constant travels and the double-edged sword of celebrity. Listeners will readily recognize Koppel's Nightline-style delivery, although they may be surprised to find that the way Koppel reads from his memoir is no different than the way he reads from a TelePrompTer. The consummate journalist, he remains objective in delivering everything from the death of a friend and colleague to his plans for building a house. Koppel is an observer, a watcher, and although he does harbor opinions--many of which are clearly stated here--they run second to his hard-nosed reporting, even when he himself is the story. Simultaneous release with the Knopf hardcover (Forecasts, Sept. 11). (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Library Journal
In this day-by-day account of 1999, Koppel, the award-winning host of ABC News's Nightline, chronicles the controversial events from the century's last year, such as the Clinton impeachment trial and the Columbine High School shootings; the potentially controversial issues, such as the Clinton administration's policies in Kosovo or the Disney/ABC corporation's treatment of its news division; and more mundane matters that Koppel makes relevant to the major themes of the journal, such as his confusion over supermarket sale advertisements or his struggle to get caller ID installed in his house. The subtitle of the book may lead some readers to expect a bit of muckraking, but they will be disappointed. Koppel airs no dirty laundry, which is not surprising from someone who expresses great distaste for the obsessive coverage of the sordid details of the Clinton-Lewinski scandal. Yet one does not get the sense that Koppel is restraining himself or hiding anything, merely that this is a person who lives his life with integrity so that his private thoughts are full of the same. Insightful, thoughtful, and honest, this book is recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/1/00.] Cheryl Van Til, Kent Dist. Lib., Comstock Park, MI Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
Steve Barrkin
The book is a valuable guide to the complex logistics of "Nightline." It conveys well famous but not always pampered, facing challenges in Jonesboro, Arkansas, one day and in Tuzla, Bosnia, the next.
— American Journalism Review
Steve Weinberg
The book's title is meant to suggest it contains opinions Koppel would never express on the air. Those opinions are worth pondering. If any doubt remained about Koppel's credentials as a real journalist instead of a highly paid, vacuous talking head,Off Camera ought to remove the doubt.
—Christian Science Monitor
Kirkus Reviews
The perceptive, articulate anchor of Nightline records his observations, thoughts, annoyances, and memories in a daily journal of the closing year of the century. Koppel (Nightline, 1996) begins, and ends, 1999 filled with hope and foreboding. He records his reaction to Clinton's impeachment, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and shootings in American public schools, as well as his pleasures in such private moments as a family birthday celebration or the visit of a grandchild. While focusing on the present, he occasionally reminisces about his English boarding school and its stringent ways. It's current events, however, that absorb Koppel, who examines both their significance and their coverage by the media. He ponders the changing nature of television news, the public's much-vaunted"right to know," the role of radio shock-jocks, and the shrinking coverage of foreign news. From time to time he takes readers behind the scenes at Nightline, going twice with his crew to the Balkans, visiting two California women's prisons, and journeying to New Hampshire during the primary campaigns. His datelines are from his various homes (two in Maryland and one in Florida); Washington (where Nightline originates); numerous American cities (where meetings and speeches take him); Ireland (for a biking tour organized by Disney's Michael Eisner), and cities throughout the Mideast and Greece (where he and his wife vacation). A veteran traveler, Koppel has some wry comments on airline shortcomings that will not win him friends in that industry, and his deadpan report of repeated efforts to get caller ID on his home phone won't please phone company executives either. Koppelcalls his diary"bread crumbs in the woods . . . marking the trail of how we got to wherever it is we are." To anyone hungry for literate, thoughtful, and thought-provoking commentary on our times, however, it is a whole satisfying loaf, crust and all. First printing of 250,000; Book-of-the-Month Club alternate selection
