All in the Family

Photographs by Stephen Sartana

Less than a week before Christmas CNN State Department correspondent Andrea Koppel '85 received a holiday bonus when she learned that she had landed an exclusive interview with one of the world's most eccentric dictators. The day before, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi startled the world by announcing that he was prepared to unveil—and dismantle—a clandestine nuclear weapons program. As a follow-up, he wanted to sit down for a tête-à-tête with CNN. Though eight months pregnant and eager to join her family for the holidays, Koppel was on a flight to Tripoli the next day.

Because she had to move fast, Koppel didn't have time to assemble a full production crew for the transatlantic journey and, 24 hours after leaving Atlanta, Koppel found herself in a simple Bedouin-style tent, with only a small digital camera jury-rigged to a tripod with red masking tape standing between her and Gadhafi. "That made it even more thrilling," says Koppel, "knowing we were doing it bare-bones and still scooping everyone else. I could not have scripted a more exciting moment before going on maternity leave. It was the interview to get."

Koppel spent nine days in Libya, covering the story from Tripoli, where she recorded the arrival of international weapons inspectors and spent Christmas dining on exquisite seafood in the shadow of an ancient crumbling arch, built centuries ago in honor of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

"It was almost too good to be true," she admits. Indeed, there are moments—standing amid throngs of celebrators in Tiananmen Square as Hong Kong reverted to Chinese sovereignty, interviewing heads of state, witnessing Colin Powell grooving to ABBA aboard the secretary of state's plane—when Koppel marvels at the fact that she is paid to witness these events. Being CNN's State Department correspondent, Koppel says, is like "a graduate school course in foreign policy—with some great perks."

Most mornings, Koppel heads from the suburban Washington, D.C., home she shares with her husband, Iraq expert Ken Pollack, to the State Department headquarters in Foggy Bottom. There, in her narrow office-TV booth, barely big enough for a computer, are stacks of papers and books, charts of world leaders, a makeup mirror, beanie babies she collected in China, and the remains of her daily power smoothie. The State Department seal adorns one wall, and a remotely operated camera is perched high in the opposite corner, allowing Koppel to appear on live television, sans camera crew, at a moment's notice.

She spends her days calling sources, checking the wires for breaking world news, and attending briefings; frequently she hustles to the front entrance of the State building or to the ornate top-floor Benjamin Franklin room, with its panoramic views of the Potomac River and Lincoln Memorial, for press conferences with Secretary Powell.

"He gives me a hard time," she jokes.

"He cuts Andrea off!" laughs Teri Schultz of Fox News. "She asks four questions in a row, then he says, 'That's enough,  Andrea.'"

On weekends, Koppel often heads to CNN's studios in D.C. or Atlanta for her latest gig: anchoring. At the anchor desk, she delivers everything from world news—a terrorist bombing in Istanbul, two choppers down in Iraq—to tips on traveling with kids. She juggles script changes on the fly, deftly handles remote interviews with her colleagues, and quizzes segment guests like an old pro. Which, of course, leads to the obvious comparison.

"Years ago, people would ask me, 'Oh, I suppose you want to anchor like your dad [Nightline anchor Ted Koppel],'" she says. "I'd say, No. I thought anchoring was what you do when you're on the network news, reading introductions to reporter packages and maybe throwing one question to a reporter. It is so different on CNN. You have to snap on your seatbelt and get ready for a rough ride. There have been days when we've been live from the moment I sit in the chair until the moment I get up three hours later—wall-to-wall live coverage that involves ad-libbing, no scripts, reacting to the situation on the ground. I love the excitement."

Now that she's a first-time mom—son Aidan was born January 25—she's hoping to do more anchoring, since the hours tend to be more predictable.

Can hosting Nightline be far behind?

"Oh please! No, no, no!" she laughs.

In fact, when she was a Middlebury student, Koppel wanted nothing to do with journalism, much less following in the steps of her famous father. So, what happened? In a chat at home, amidst furniture from Bali, framed Chinese posters, and other mementos of her travels around the world, Koppel tells Middlebury Magazine how she went from her college dreams of being a diplomat to becoming a fixture in living rooms around the world.

Middlebury Magazine As a college student, why didn't you want to go into news?
Andrea Koppel It was an extracurricular activity I loved. But there was also personal baggage. My dad was just becoming a household name. I'm the oldest of four, and everyone just expected I would go into journalism. So of course I couldn't. I wanted to travel. I saw myself as the future ambassador to France. I loved everything French.

MM What changed your mind?
AKI was an unemployed college graduate (a political science major with a concentration in Chinese) who needed a job. Going to China (as a trade representative/translator) seemed like a good Plan B, until I figured out what Plan A would be. . . . My new friends happened to be journalists. Around Christmas, the Catholic Church in Beijing held a mass for the first time in decades. My friends went to the midnight mass Christmas Eve and were talking about it. I thought, My god, this sounds so exciting, interesting, and stimulating. I love people. I love to learn. This is what I should be doing. It was one of those thunder crack, lightning strike moments. Six months after I arrived in Beijing, I came home and looked for a job in journalism.

MM Best advice from dad?
AK Both my parents said it's not going to be easy; in fact, it was going to be more difficult for me. People naturally compare the young upstart with the established mature journalist. Is she a chip off the old block? People look to see if you have an attitude, if you expect to be treated a certain way.  You have to put in the 11 or 12 hours for people to say, "Yeah, this kid really is hungry."

My first job was at a public radio station in South Carolina. On my first story, I had my tape recorder, one of those big jobbies, and I'm all ready, like I've done this a million times! I'm about ready to walk out the door, and I say to the news director, casually, "So I hit play and record?"

I was incredibly excited to put stories on the air—how to pick a good Christmas tree, how to get your car inspected. The highlight was when I got to cover a Huey Lewis and the News concert. I actually liked him in those days!

I also wanted to try TV, to see if I enjoyed it. I got a job in Baltimore, where I covered people affected by fires. I had a lead story about a family of ducks rescued from a drain. Fall foliage. Singing in the shower. I could be both serious and silly. That kind of sums up who I am as a person. Then, in Miami [at her second TV job], I went to Cuba and Haiti for stories. That combined my love of travel, learning about different cultures, and telling stories.

[In the early '90s] Jean Bertrand Aristide, Haiti's elected leader, had gone into exile. Hundreds of Haitians were trying to come to south Florida because the situation was so bad. This was the first time I was able to break away and really be a journalist—the type of thing where you wake up in the morning, you know what your story is going to be, but you don't have your characters. One [boat person] we found had been caught by the Coast Guard. He was going back to his village, having failed to get away. It's the kind of thing where you get chills running up and down your arm. It's a real story, about real people. I got hooked. I wanted to tell stories about the voiceless, to explain different cultures, different people, different policies to people who otherwise wouldn't be interested, wouldn't care or just have no way of knowing about them.

MM How did you end up back in Beijing, this time as CNN's China bureau chief?
AK Because of the Chinese I studied at Middlebury—I am convinced! Foreign correspondents are a dime a dozen. Plenty of people can tell stories and report live. What set me apart was I had studied Mandarin.

Working in China was truly a magical time for me. Studying language is the key to opening the door to a different world. You have the ability to communicate with people or read signs or understand conversations that are going on next to you that would otherwise just be noise.

I went to Tibet, one of my most difficult trips but also one of the most satisfying. It was the first time in six years they had allowed foreign journalists into the region. I tried to get a feel for Tibetans' ability to practice their faith. It is truly one of the most beautiful places on earth but it was also incredibly sad to see their culture become diluted.

I traveled to Taiwan to interview its first democratically elected president. I reported on war games China played to try to threaten Taiwan. There were so many stories.

But when CNN offered me a job as State Department correspondent, I couldn't pass it up. It continued my interest in foreign policy. It was a main beat assignment in Washington. It's where my parents are. I'd been overseas about five years. I packed up all my rugs … had a final shopping spree in Bali, and I came back in April 1998.

MM Was it culture shock?
AK It was. It was a shock understanding every single conversation that you hear around you. In China, there'd be people speaking in some dialect, and I'd have no idea what they were saying. Here you turn on the TV and you understand just about everything. Well this was before reality TV!

As a journalist, I had to start all over again to prove myself. The State Department is probably one of the toughest nuts to crack, a place where people are naturally suspicious of talking to journalists. It took a lot of hard slogging to get people to trust me and tell me what's really going on. My life was one-dimensional: work, work, and more work. But if it takes an extra four or five phone calls to find out what's going on, I'm going to do that. The idea that my competition would get something before I do drives me.

MM Have you had any pinch-me-I'm-dreaming moments?
AK Lots. One was July 1997, when Hong Kong returned to mainland China control. I was reporting live for CNN from Tiananmen Square. It was the countdown to midnight. There were tens of thousands of Chinese crowded into the square. A lot of it was planned by the government, the festivities, the cheerleaders and everything. It was incredible to think about what I was witnessing. This is the country I studied, that I've now lived in. I knew the next generation would read about the handover of Hong Kong.

MM What are Secretaries Albright and Powell really like?
AK When Powell went to Afghanistan after the U.S. invasion, I brought my digital video camera so I could do a story behind the scenes of what it's like to travel with him. I asked the secretary if I could show off his cabin, and he said sure. He was listening to some music -- ABBA's Greatest Hits -- on his CD player. Later I said, "Mr. Secretary, I feel remiss that I didn't ask you to sing," because he really is such a ham. I knew if he was in the right mood, he'd be willing to serenade us. And he did! With "Dancing Queen."

Covering Albright during the build-up to the war in Kosovo was interesting. She was so passionate about the Balkans. For her, it was much more than going through the motions of carrying out American foreign policy. This was personal to her, as a young girl who lived in Belgrade under communism. I couldn't help but think: Here I am, a woman, and she's the first female secretary of state. It was a special moment in our nation's history.

Also—and this is nothing you would ever see with Secretary Powell—on the plane, her aides would carry her makeup, shoes, and all the different outfits she was going to wear. Powell wears the same tracksuit when he changes out of his work clothes. He's just like any other guy.

MM What's the best perk of the job?
AKMeeting my husband! In the late '90s, things were heating up with Iraq, and I needed an expert. For months I just spoke to him on the phone. We met in January of 1999. A few months later, we knew we wanted to get married. At our wedding, Ken said that the only good thing Saddam Hussein had ever done was play matchmaker between us.

MM How else has TV changed your life?
AK Television has been part of my life as long as I can remember. I remember sitting around the dinner table watching my dad report from different hot spots around the world. I'm coming up on my 18th year in news, 15 in television. I've filled a couple passports worth of stamps from countries I am sure I would never have seen otherwise. I've interviewed some of the most interesting people on the world stage. It has given me more self-confidence because I'm forced to articulate my thoughts on a regular basis to hundreds of thousands of people.

MMYou graduated from Middlebury almost 20 years ago. In 20 more years …
AK My son will be going to college—I can't guarantee it will be Middlebury, since my husband went to Yale! And I'd like to think I'll have my own show, a news program that doesn't focus on the Spice Girls and P. Diddy, or their children!

MaconMorehouse '86 is a reporter for Peoplemagazine inWashington,D.C.