Koppel sat for an hour-long talk with the young journalists, sharing the story of his rise from working as a "coffee boy" at a New York radio station to being one of the most respected newsmen on television.

He also discussed the creation of Nightline, which began in late 1979 as a special report called "America Held Hostage" during the Iranian hostage crisis. After the 180th day of the crisis, ABC news executives decided to make the show permanent and changed the name to Nightline.

Nightline revolutionized television news. The show was created at the same time satellite technology was beginning to develop, providing a new way to "bring people together who were world's apart" and to do it live, said Koppel.

Nightline also paved the way for the creation of CNN and the other all-news channels that have proliferated on television.

But when you're broadcasting all the time and have all that air time to fill, Koppel said, there's a danger of reporting something "not because it's news, but because it just happened."

Lamenting that many television news stations are always looking to get the story first, Koppel complained that the quest to "get it right" has been pushed aside in many news organizations which are now driven primarily by the bottom line.

When he started in TV, Koppel said, "news wasn't supposed to make money... 'Sixty Minutes' changed all that."

"When your principle goal becomes making money, you go for the lowest common denominator."

Koppel also called the Election Night chaos that resulted in a premature call on the Florida results and confusion over the national election outcome, "a black eye for TV."

Koppel said there is no typical day for him and his staff at Nightline, and just about anything is possible.

"Everything is carved in sand around here," Koppel quipped.

With the possibility that news can break at any hour of the day, Koppel said the entire show can change as late as 9 p.m., only two hours before the show goes on the air live.

When Nightline isn't live with the breaking story of the day, Koppel said show topics range from day-in-the-life stories to issue oriented "anatomy" stories where one topic is explored in-depth. Nightline always devotes an entire show to a single topic, unlike the network nightly news where just a few minutes is typically spent on each subject.

Koppel told the Washington Journalism Center reporters that one of the most important pieces of advice he could give them is to listen to their news sources. Too often, Koppel said, journalists are too worried about asking the specific questions they have prepared and don't listen to what the people they are interviewing have to say. Koppel noted that he almost never makes a list of questions for his interviews.

"This is not a profession for people who like structure in their lives," Koppel said. "If you want structure, go be a tax accountant."