Broadcast legend Ted Koppel in Richmond for speaker series at Altria Theater

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- Longtime ABC News anchor Ted Koppel made a stop in Richmond on Saturday night, sharing stories of his historic run as Nightline for 25 years.

The 43-time Emmy Award winner spoke at the Altria Theater for the 40th season of The Richmond Forum. He was the forum’s first-ever speaker in 1987.

“Crisis of the news today, it’s shallow, and it’s partisan, we need to give you the news as best we can unvarnished,” Koppel said.

Koppel, now 85, told the packed crowd stories of how much the broadcast industry has changed since he started out as a war correspondent six decades ago, where the only form of communication he had with his wife was writing letters weeks at a time.

“Journalists have never been particularly popular, and that’s healthy. If we become too popular, that means we got them too easy, and our function is not to become beloved, our function is to give the wider audience balanced information,” Koppel said.

The British-born broadcaster now resides in Maryland with his wife of 63 years. He said one of his favorite interviews was with Nelson Mandela in 1990, following his release from prison after 27 years in South Africa.

PBS NewsHour co-anchor Amna Nawaz moderated the event, which was a full circle moment for the Virginia native as she first met Koppel as an intern for Nightline 24 years ago. They discussed how apt it was to be discussing the forum’s “moments that mattered” on the anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

The two-hour event wrapped up just before 10 p.m., which Koppel said was passed his bedtime. It had an intermission and live music performed by James “Saxsmo” Gates and band. There was a Q&A session with questions from audience members and broadcast journalist Soledad O’Brien, who asked Koppel how reporters walk that line of covering a story and actively participating in it as Koppel did following Hurricane Katrina, where he was pictured aiding an evacuee in floodwaters to safety.

“There’s no simple answer to that. You don’t stop being a human being, but at the same token, I am not there to be an assistant to the Red Cross, I am there to cover a story,” Koppel said.

Koppel reminisced of a bygone era. He is not on social media, still reads three newspapers a day and no longer rides his motorcycle. A smile came on Koppel’s face when he said he currently works with his “tough but great” producer daughter Deirdre as a special contributor for CBS Sunday Morning.

“Journalism is an important career, let’s not allow it to become irrelevant,” Koppel said. “In putting out more partisan news, it’s dangerous, it’s undermining the U.S. in our 250th year, it would be a tragedy to lose the very thing that made us such a model.”

The Richmond Forum’s next speaker is former Finland Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Jan. 17, 2026.