Out of the Spotlight, Newsmen Still Shine

Network news has dominated the television playing field for so long that we tend to think of those who leave its confines as being shipped off to the minor leagues, where they relive their glory days by playing to far smaller crowds.

But there is a flip side to the equation: a liberation from the constraints of major networks that can provide breathing room for a more innovative approach to journalism.

Tom Brokaw has done nine specials for the Discovery Channel in addition to his NBC work, on subjects ranging from bioterror to global warming. Dan Rather, having been squeezed out by CBS, is launching an hour-long program this fall for the high-definition channel HDNet. And Ted Koppel makes his Discovery debut next Sunday with "The Price of Security," a three-hour look at the tension between national security and civil liberties -- the kind of long-form programming that is outside the realm of possibility at networks, which make their money from entertainment.

Even with an hour-long documentary, the former ABC newsman says, "the idea that they'd blow out 'Desperate Housewives' is just not going to happen."

After his quarter-century at "Nightline," Koppel looks slightly out of place in Room HC-05B of Discovery's Silver Spring headquarters, in a wing that is dedicated to the Animal Planet channel. But he is surrounded by his team: Ten staffers, including his former top producers Tom Bettag and Leroy Sievers, have made the move with him. And Koppel is reveling in being able to produce a show he calls " 'Nightline' on steroids" -- an hour and a half, followed by a town hall meeting of the same length. So now he can say everything he wants?

"Knowing we had 90 minutes, we went out and did far more than we had room for," he says. In fact, the rough cut was 35 minutes too long.

Although he is no longer part of ABC News, Koppel does not feel more free to be opinionated. "My personal point of view . . . is really irrelevant," he says. "I don't think this is like 'American Idol,' where at the end Simon Cowell says, 'You really didn't do very well tonight, and let's put it up for a vote.' It's far too important for that."

Still, Koppel is willing to say that the Bush administration may be justified in considering extraordinary measures against terror suspects. "If one accepts the premise that the next 9/11 could be a nuclear 9/11, you would be naive and foolish to just dismiss it out of hand. . . . I accept it as a rational hypothesis. This is not a war that can really be fought with high-altitude bombs or aircraft carriers or even tanks and armored personnel carriers."

A 90-minute program, it turns out, has a very different pace from your typical television segment. When Koppel interviews officials at Guantanamo Bay about the treatment of detainees, what evolves is a conversation about the limits of interrogation, rather than the usual thrust and parry of tightly edited interviews.

In a discussion with Rear Adm. Harry Harris, for instance, Koppel asks whether sleep deprivation amounts to torture. "I believe sleep deprivation is a practice that we do not do now," Harris says.

"I didn't ask you that," Koppel says in his trademark style, and "with all due respect" repeats the question. This time Harris says: "I believe it's cruel, but -- and I don't believe it's torture." When Harris maintains that use of stress positions, extreme noise and extreme temperatures would not be considered torture if used against Americans, Koppel expresses his amazement with one softly uttered word: "Really?"

The program ranges from interviews with current and former Bush administration officials -- Condoleezza Rice, Tom Ridge, Karen Hughes -- to a Canadian deported by U.S. agents to a Syrian prison, where he describes being tortured. Koppel also visits the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas to examine techniques for identifying cheating gamblers, which are being emulated by government "data mining" efforts.