Accent

Fox News aims to counter show on 'Nightline'

Fox News host Chris Wallace plans a counterstrike Sunday against his old ABC colleague Ted Koppel, saying Koppel's controversial roll call of slain U.S. troops on Friday's "Nightline" failed to explain what they died for. "I'll take Ted at his word that ABC did not intend it as a political statement or a ratings stunt," said Wallace. "But when you look at all the factors - the one-year anniversary of President Bush declaring major combat over, the fact the U.S. has just had a rough stretch there, all the promotion he did for it - I think it came out that way." So, Wallace said, "Fox News Sunday" (airing at 8 a.m. on KMSB, Channel 11) "will list the accomplishments of U.S. troops, such as ousting Saddam Hussein and rebuilding the infrastructure. "We are in no way saying the U.S. mission in Iraq is an unalloyed success or that there aren't serious questions - which we have raised ourselves. "But to just list the names of fallen soldiers without context is like listing the names of those who died on D-Day without talking about what the invasion accomplished." Wallace said "Nightline" has discussed war events on other nights and said last Friday's show wasn't "partisan." But, he said, it lacked balance. ABC has said the show was intended solely as a tribute to the soldiers. Koppel, in a letter to The Washington Post last Friday, said that if the show had wanted to "artificially boost" its ratings, it would have turned to names like Kobe Bryant or Michael Jackson. An ABC spokesman Wednesday declined further comment. While Friday's "Nightline" did not air on seven ABC stations owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, it was watched in an estimated 4.7 million households, 29 percent more than other "Nightline" broadcasts last week. Wallace was a substitute host on "Nightline" for years before he moved to Fox News in 2003.