Nightline:

Nightline: History in the Making and the Making of Television tells the inside story of a news broadcast that stands alone in its class: how shrewd network news executives turned a late-night byway into a major news thoroughfare, challenging both the hegemony of Johnny Carson and the conventional wisdom that television was no place for serious discussion of weighty issues; how a tireless band of producers, infatuated with the potential of new satellite technology, daringly used it as a new tool in the art of journalism and, frequently, international relations; and how, as politicians and newsmakers slowly began to realize the power of this idiosyncratic program, they attempted to make it a tool of their own. In this entertaining and revealing book, Ted Koppel and Kyle Gibson, a former Nightline producer, bring the reader backstage and back through history. Readers will find behind-the-scenes stories of the remarkable ingenuity that Nightline producers deployed to cover breaking events, a clear explanation of how new technological tools like satellites and portable videotape cameras changed the news business, and the rules of the cat-and-mouse games that journalists and newsmakers play. The book also reveals how this innovative program occasionally helped alter world events. The story of Nightline is the story of people and events that have defined the past decade and a half. From its origins in the Iran hostage crisis to the end of apartheid in South Africa, the fall of the Marcos regime in the Philippines, and the continuing story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Nightline has been our eyes and ears on history. It has helped us get to know such pivotal figures as Nelson Mandela, Yassir Arafat, and Bill Clinton, as well as rogues like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Imelda Marcos, and Oliver North. Drawn from more than 120 interviews with Nightline staff members and guests, plus Koppel's own reminiscences, Nightline: History in the Making and the Making of Television is an insider's guide to one of the most memorable programs ever broadcast and a vivid record of cornerstone events in contemporary history.