December 26, 2002
Media Aristocrat Tells Neighbors to Keep It Down
Ted Koppel is suing his neighbors in the wealthy Washington D.C. suburb of Potomac for allegedly failing to honor an agreement to keep their houses under 10,000 square feet. (See The Washington Post.) Modest Ted wants to keep the neighborhood from getting out of hand, though his neighbors say his own house is the only one that tops 10,000 square feet. They say it will be 14,000 square feet when it is finished. Koppel's lawyer says it's 9,700.While much of the world Koppel reports on is seething with violence and misery, Ted and his wealthy neighbors are suing and countersuing over the size of their mansions, creating some good pay days for their lawyers. Meanwhile, the subtext of this article is that the concerns of Ted Koppel, like those of his rich politician neighbors in Washington, have practically no relationship to the problems of ordinary Americans. Koppel is representative of a class of media star aristocrats who typify those who ask the gentle questions of the politicians on TV. All the network talking heads are extremely rich men who live very cushy lives and can't be expected to have much comprehension of the struggles of ordinary working people, the majority of Americans.
Don't believe them.