Ted Koppel begins his groundbreaking Discovery Channel series, KOPPEL ON DISCOVERY, with a three-hour primetime special on the eve of the fifth anniversary of September 11. Koppel′s world premiere, THE PRICE OF SECURITY, uses interviews with current and former administration members, military and security experts to explore the dilemma the government faces in the war on terrorism.
On the one hand, it has national security as its first obligation and has been criticized for not "connecting the dots." At the same time, the government is being assailed by civillibertarians for undermining the freedoms on which the United States was founded.
Following the 8 p.m. ET/PT broadcast of KOPPEL ON DISCOVERY: THE PRICE OF SECURITY, Koppel will host a live town meeting in Washington, DC with 9/11 family members, civil libertarians, Administration officials and Members of Congress from 9:30 - 11 p.m. ET/PT. The town meeting will involve not only people in the audience, but also people at home. Viewers will be given the opportunity to have their own questions answered by the experts via discoverychannel.com.
Koppel explores the growth in the technology that makes it possible to collect and sort through detailed personal data. Commercial interests now track buying and travel habits, personal tastes, and reading habits through credit card data and Internet usage. The broadcast examines the debate over whether there should be limits on how that information can be used by law enforcement to preempt terrorist attacks.
For his second Discovery Channel special later this fall, 27 years after American hostages were seized in Tehran, Koppel plans to take viewers back to the subject of Iran. He looks at the historical reasons for Iranians′ suspicions and for their support of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad′s refusal to halt Iran′s nuclear program. He also intends to explore Iranians′ perspectives on Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel.
