Ted Koppel commencement address

[snopes]

Comment: My minister quoted Ted Koppel as having said this at a
commencement address at Duke University. It sounded like an urban legend,
but based on what I have been able to find on the internet, it seems he
may have actually said it. I have been unable, however, to find the full
text of the speech. I thought you might be interested. And keep upt the
good work. You have saved me the embarassment of a dozen bogus email
forwards.

"We have actually convinced ourselves that slogans will save us. Shoot up
if you must; but use a clean needle. Enjoy sex whenever and with whomever
you wish, but wear a condom. No! The answer is no. Not because it isn't
cool or smart or because you might end up in jail or in an aids ward, but
no because it's wrong, because we have spent 5,000 years as a race of
rational human beings, trying to drag ourselves out of the primeval slime
by searching for truth and moral absolutes. In its purest form, truth is
not a polite tap on the shoulder. It is a howling reproach. What Moses
brought down from Mount Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions."

ABC Nightline Moderator, Ted Koppel, at Duke University, Durham, North
Carolina, giving the 1987 commencement address.

[Keeper of the Mad Bunnies]

Is Time magazine good enough?

Koppel definitely gave the commencemnt address in 1987. This part is quoted in many places, especially religious oriented sites. It is supposedly printed in Duke magazine, but I don't think that is online.

MediaWatch claims to have the full text. It is near the bottom of the page. The quote appears to be abridged. Here is the relevant section.

We have actually convinced ourselves that slogans will save us. "Shoot up if you must; but use a clean needle." "Enjoy sex whenever with whomever you wish; but wear a condom."

No. The answer is no. Not no because it isn't cool or smart or because you might end up in jail or dying in an AIDS ward -- but no, because it's wrong. Because we have spent 5,000 years as a race of rational human being trying to drag ourselves out of the primeval slime by searching for truth and moral absolutes. In the place of Truth we have discovered facts; for moral absolutes we have substituted moral ambiguity. We now communicate with everyone and say absolutely nothing. We have reconstructed the Tower of Babel and it is a television antenna. A thousand voices producing a daily parody of democracy; in which everyone's opinion is afforded equal weight, regardless of substance or merit. Indeed, it can even be argued that opinions of real weight tend to sink with barely a trace of television's ocean banalities.

Our society finds Truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form Truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder; it is a hallowing reproach.

What Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions, they are Commandments. Are, not were.

The Vannatizing of America