Big Surprise

Reuters: Ted Koppel to contribute to NPR, New York Times---

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One week after signing up to make news documentaries for the Discovery Channel, former "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel has struck additional deals to contribute commentaries to National Public Radio and The New York Times.

Koppel, who ended a 42-year ABC News career with his final "Nightline" television broadcast in November, will join NPR as a senior news analyst in June under an agreement to appear on the public radio network's national programs about 50 times a year, NPR said on Thursday.

He will contribute analysis and commentary for such NPR programs as "Morning Edition," which ranks as the nation's No. 1 morning radio show, as well as "All Things Considered" and the midday news magazine "Day to Day."

He also will serve as an NPR analyst for breaking news reports and coverage of special events, and his work will appear on NPR's Web site and in programming made available by the network for digital downloads.

"I have been an unabashed fan of NPR for many years and have stolen untold excellent ideas from its programming," Koppel said in a statement. "It's time to give something back."

The New York Times announced separately that Koppel, 65, would join the newspaper as a contributing columnist starting on January 29, providing opinion pieces to its Op-Ed page on a periodic basis.

Now, why would a "non-partisan" journalist want to work for such partisan outlets. Oh, wait, according to the MSM/Dems, NPR and the NYT are not partisan; they just tell the truth.

And, in reality, Ted Koppel is not "non-partisan." So, really, this is a perfect fit.