Ted Koppel Makes A Discovery About Broadcast News

Ted Koppel filming in Petra, Jordan, for the Discovery Channel, where he will have a newsmagazine in the fall. (By George Azar -- Discovery Channel Via Associated Press)

"I am really where I am truly by choice. Nobody forced me out of ABC. Indeed, they were very generous in offering to keep me on in a variety of different roles there, and I have nothing but good feelings about my association with ABC over the years. But I truly do feel Discovery is a better place to be right now," he told the TV critics.

Asked if he thought, as Rather had suggested the day before, that political timidity on the part of the large corporations that now own the broadcast networks affects decisions about news programming, Koppel said, "I don't think politics has as much to do with it, quite frankly, as the marketplace does.

"The marketplace is exerting a far more dangerous influence on what gets on and what doesn't get on television news programming these days than any . . . fear of political repercussions or consequences."

Getting down to brass tacks, Koppel explained that ABC is entirely dependent for its income on the commercials it can sell in the programs that it airs.

"As all of you know far better than I, the cost of a commercial on a program that reaches an audience over 45 or 50 is a fraction of what a . . . sponsor is willing to pay for a commercial on a broadcast that reaches the 18-to-29-year-olds."

Discovery, meanwhile, also sells ads but gets a significant portion of its income from "cable feeds," Koppel said, and the price is the same whether the subscriber is 18 or 85.

"So the pressure to reach a particular demographic is simply not as great at Discovery as it is at one of the commercial networks. That's just a fact. And while I have grown to be very fond of [Discovery Network President Billy Campbell] and all the people I am working for at Discovery, fondness, friendship has nothing to do with it. This is simply a reality of the business world in which we live."

Cut to ABC News staffers Wednesday e-mailing a news release to the same reporters about the next "Primetime" newsmag story -- a report on a boy ABC News identifies only as Adam the Healer:

"Can a 19-year-old from Canada heal people of incurable conditions such as cancer and multiple sclerosis?" the release said.

" 'Primetime's' John Quiñones investigates the phenomenon, following stories of the desperate people who have come hoping for miracles, sitting down with the healer himself, and interviewing some experts who weigh in as well."

The news report airs Thursday night. Coincidentally, "Adam's" new book, "The Path of the Dreamhealer," comes out in the United States this week -- what are the odds?