Ted Koppel of ABC and Invasion of Ukraine by Russia

Today is the 117^th day of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, or as Russians put it, “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine. I do not care for either name as I fancy myself a pacifist. The calendrical day count is given by the London based newspaper, The Guardian.

Somehow, I get the gut feeling that unless the number hits 444 – that is, the number of days of the invasion aka operation extends for that many days – this episode would not get over.

What is this 444 days, apparently plucked out of nowhere? Not so. It has a specific reference.

In 1979, Iranians held a number of Americans as hostages, for precisely 444 days. It ended on January 20, 1981, immediately after Ronald Regan was sworn in the President of the United States (POTUS, from this point on). This was an insult to the then outgoing POTUS, Jimmy Carter; an in-your-face spit that, in a way, endorsed Reagan.

Where does Ted Koppel come in this scenario that came true?

ABC began a news brief at the end of the day (11:30 PM) to update the American public on the developments of the day, on the hostage front. This is precisely what The Guardian is trying to do now. Its news brief in its e-news on what is happening in Donbas region carries the headline “Russia-Ukraine war at a glance” and under it, the equivalent of a strap line, “ … what we know on day 117 of the invasion”.

Day after day, as I have monitored, only the number changes; everything remains the same, and there has never been any byline.

The Guardian is too old fashioned in this dog-eat-dog world of media operations. It is the name that counts. Look across the Atlantic Ocean, and learn.

Walter Cronkite and his, “And that’s the way it is …”  sign-off. An air of definitiveness, authority and a relatable name that aids the avuncular persona on the screen. In the case of the Iranian Hostage Crisis and Ted Koppel’s Nightline, it was the name, “Nightline” that grabbed viewers, there being a milder finality to the news of the day. This carried on for 444 days! In the Bible this block of 444 days foretells good things, like one person atoning for all the sins ever done by anyone and to be done by anyone till …,  happening.

So, for the US, the sins committed by James Earl Carter, Jr. were atoned symbolically by the return of the “Freedom Flight” carrying the hostages.

I expect, if not indeed foretelling, that this Ukraine-Russia war would continue till the gong strikes 444 days. So, would it not be better if news organizations (are you listening The Guardian?) gave a spiffy name (Nightline, for example) in place of the bland “Ukraine-Russia war”, anchored to a media personality with a personable media-face (Ted Koppel, for example) and a sub-masthead that is as attractive as “Tucker Carlson Tonight ” is to the frothing-at-the-mouth Fox News followers?

I think I should be paid for the service I have provided – improving the readership of The Guardian. I have been told that check (not cheque, as my old fashioned father corrected me in his response to my first letter from the US to him) is in the mail!

Raghuram Ekambaram

P.S I just noted. My post is 555 words long, excluding my name at the end and this post – midway between 444 and 666, Biblical numbers! Any meaning?