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Koppel leads live Discovery telecast from Silver Spring

In first of a new discussion series, cable network extends reach into political content

Friday, Sept. 15, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo courtesy of Jeff Hutchens⁄Discovery Channel Ted Koppel leads a discussion during Discovery Communications’ first live televised program from its Silver Spring headquarters.

The program featured one of the cable giant’s newest stars, Ted Koppel of Potomac, who led the first in a series of discussions with audience members on newsworthy topics.

For Sunday’s show, Discovery converted its lobby, visible to passers-by through the building’s glass front on Georgia and Wayne avenues, into a television studio with panelists and 300 audience members.

The show immediately followed the premiere of a 90-minute documentary, ‘‘The Price of Security,” in which Koppel reported on how the United States is trying to balance its security needs with its citizens’ civil liberties.

Some said the scene typified Silver Spring’s $500 million downtown revitalization that began in 1999, as well as Discovery’s growth since moving from Bethesda in 2003. The privately held network says it has 1.3 billion subscribers in 170 countries.

‘‘Silver Spring really has changed. I can look over there and see people walking down the street after, say, coming out of the grill. They stop by and look in here and see Ted Koppel on a live TV show,” said David McKillop, Discovery’s vice president for production and a fourth-generation native of the area.

The Montgomery County Police Department had cordoned off side streets. Television production trucks ringed the building’s entrance, and rivers of cables and huge air conditioning tubes snaked into the lobby.

The audience watched wide-screen TVs as the documentary ended, segueing to a night aerial shot of the building and an announcer saying, ‘‘From the worldwide headquarters of Discovery Communications in Silver Spring, Maryland ...”

The show also typified Discovery’s expansion of its content, from nature and science shows to a socio-political debate over the meaning of words such as terror, torture, democracy and security.

On one side of Koppel, who sat center stage on a stool, were a dozen relatives of people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, jetliner attacks in New York City and on the Pentagon.

On another side were panelists including Tom Ridge, former secretary of Homeland Security; retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, former U.S. Central Command commander and co-author with Tom Clancy of ‘‘The Battle For Peace”; and Paul McNulty, deputy U.S. attorney general, who prosecuted Zacharias Moussaoui, a co-conspirator in the 2001 attacks.

Also flanking Koppel were 18 activists, philanthropists, authors and former White House counsels. Most participated in the discussion.

‘‘This is just wonderful to have this here,” said Montgomery County Councilwoman Marilyn J. Praisner (D-Dist. 4) of Calverton, who was in the audience. The county ‘‘really worked very hard at one time to get Discovery to come to Silver Spring. We managed a little tax credit for them at the time.”

Discovery’s tax break totaled $27 million, with the county picking up about two-thirds of the tab and the state paying the rest.

Billionaire financier George Soros, who flew in from his New York office to attend, said he was impressed with the setting.

‘‘This is a very serious discussion and it is very necessary,” said Soros, whose philanthropic foundation, the Open Society Institute, is dedicated to building infrastructure for ‘‘more open societies” in many countries.

Abe and Irene Pollin, owners of the Washington Wizards basketball team, were front-row guests. They have been friends of Koppel for 30 years, said Irene Pollin. Abe Pollin said televising the live program from Silver Spring, ‘‘is just terrific. I think it is fantastic to do this here.”

Normally, any programming that Discovery produces in Maryland is done at its Kenyan Street studio in Silver Spring and not at its corporate headquarters, McKillop said. He said local companies were hired to build the sets and create a television studio out of the cavernous lobby of ceramic tile and glass that normally reverberates with every footstep between metallic exhibits.

Richard Harris, producer of Discovery new discussion series, said at a reception before the show, ‘‘This is an opportunity to show off this incredible building and a trial. It is a trial to see if this works here. Hard to believe that was the lobby. We thought it would be good for an intimate setting for a town meeting. It would lend itself to easy dialogue rather than hold it in a huge hall.”

Harris and McKillop said after the program that they expect Discovery to consider repeating the setup.

Also at the reception, Marilynn Rosenthal of New York, whose son died in the attack on the World Trade Center, said, ‘‘This is a very important discussion. This is the central issue for America ... It is one thing to talk about security, but we also stand for something. This administration is focused on military solutions, but it is also important to use the diplomatic toolbox.”