"At this critical juncture in your lives, then, let me urge you – no, let me implore you – to want more," Koppel told the UMass-Amherst Class of 2012.
Television journalist Ted Koppel was the keynote speaker and received a honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst during the 2012 commencement on Friday afternoon. AMHERST — Newsman Ted Koppel implored University of Massachusetts Class of 2012 graduates Friday to want more substance about important issues, more substantial than the information provided from the fleeting and brief Twitter.
“At this critical juncture in your lives, then, let me urge you — no, let me implore you — to want more,” he told the 5,000 graduates at the 142nd UMass commencement. Koppel, the keynote speaker, received an honorary doctorate, his 25th honorary degree.
Koppel, the longtime host of ABC's "Nightline" who works as a special correspondent for the NBC News program "Rock Center" with Brian Williams, urged the graduates to want "more objectivity; more tolerance for views that differ from your own. More time to reflect and consider.
"And above all, a greater understanding that these extraordinary instruments of communication are still just that – nothing more than that – merely tools. Like the paint brush, the quill pen, the typewriter, they depend entirely on those who use them," he said.
"If we are going to deal intelligently with the problems we confront, we need time to pause, to consider and reflect. But our media, news and social, are intolerant of anything but an instant response," he said. "We are making and receiving endless observations about the trivial, and believe that we are communicating. I am left with a feeling of not just great opportunities missed, but with a sense of actual danger to our republic."
“Much of our journalism is a catalog of what just happened, without any regard to its impact or importance," Koppel said. But he said rather than “using information to illuminate the world, though, we consume it like fuel.” He said “the faster we go, the less we see and understand.”
The 72-year-old, who is also a contributor to National Public Radio’s "Talk of the Nation" and a contributing columnist for the New York Times and Washington Post, raised concerns about the corrosiveness of the political debate.
He said debate is a “wonderful thing, but partisan shrieking is corrosive and destructive. If we are to find solutions to to the challenges we face, we have to relearn the virtues of compromise.”
Students applauded several times during his speech and gave him a standing ovation at the end.
UMass Chancellor Robert C. Holub praised Koppel.
“He refined a type of investigative journalism that uses dialogue to piece together a multidimensional truth that is complex and not always easy, but always honors the intelligence of its viewer. You, as graduates of this great institution, are an audience worthy of his address," Holub said.
This was Holub’s final undergraduate ceremony. Holub is leaving June 30 after four years at UMass.
“Your fortunes in our modern economy may rise and fall. Over the course of your life, they probably will rise and fall," Holub said. "I know it is not customary to say that in a commencement speech, but I also know that your generation has no illusions about the stability of the world.
“You may go through tough times when is difficult to make ends meet; you may be on top one day and struggling the next. This happens as a part of life. Still, your education is your own,” he said.
In ceremonies in the Mullins Center on Friday morning, 1,300 students received graduate degrees.