Koppel compares Colbert to Clemens

Photo by Chion Wolf

Ted Koppel came to Hartford's Mark Twain House for the 2011 Clemens Lecture, moderated by WNPR's John Dankosky. Despite the annoyingly hissy audio quality,  it made for great radio and TV. Radio version: "Where We Live."  TV version:  CT-N website. Here are my favorite quotes: 


Koppel on Twain: "Through his writing we're able to see this sort of irascible charm that these days, I guess, is best exemplified by Stephen Colbert. He's the closest thing we have to Mark Twain these days."


Dankosky: "Does television news really need to exist moving forward?"
Koppel: "Um, no...it doesn't need to, but then I don't need to be sitting here answering your stupid questions."