Peter Jennings Is Dead

August 7, 2005 8:54 PM

Peter Jennings Dies of lung cancer at 67.
posted by AMWKE (166 comments total)

It did sound like he smoked a bit though...
posted by kuatto at 8:58 PM on August 7, 2005

He said that he quit for 20 years, then started again after 9/11.
posted by watsondog at 8:59 PM on August 7, 2005

So?
posted by signal at 8:59 PM on August 7, 2005

can't blame him I guess, glad I was able to quit when I did
posted by kuatto at 9:00 PM on August 7, 2005

.

(there was talk all weekend about him being in a very bad way)
posted by amberglow at 9:02 PM on August 7, 2005

i grew up watching jennings, as did some of you.
rest in peace.
posted by nola at 9:04 PM on August 7, 2005

.

I remember being stretched out on the floor playing with toys while my father watched World News Tonight with Frank Reynolds, Max Robinson, and Peter Jennings. Just as Cronkite was to a generation before, Jennings was to my generation. Now there's nothing left but vacuous talking heads spouting newstainment on network news, and that's not a good thing.
posted by keswick at 9:10 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by wakko at 9:10 PM on August 7, 2005

Oh, oh hell. Very sorry to hear this.

.
posted by jokeefe at 9:10 PM on August 7, 2005

Dammit.

He was truly one of the greats, and a class act on the air. He will be sorely missed.

.
posted by Vidiot at 9:12 PM on August 7, 2005

Amen.
posted by Mr Bluesky at 9:12 PM on August 7, 2005

Wow. Didn't see that one coming. Very sorry to hear.
posted by yhbc at 9:13 PM on August 7, 2005

i heard he was a big fan of jerry garcia

.
posted by tsarfan at 9:14 PM on August 7, 2005

i grew up watching jennings,

*nods*

.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 9:14 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by pruner at 9:16 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by dial-tone at 9:16 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by Kellydamnit at 9:18 PM on August 7, 2005

I heard that Peter Jennings had a nose job...

Sad that he died though.
posted by Jimmypops at 9:20 PM on August 7, 2005

I wonder if we aren't starting to witness the end of an era, with the passing of the respectable news anchor. Do I respect any one on CNN, Fox, MSNBC the way I do the old network news anchors?...

I didn't know he was sick; this was a surprise.

.
posted by teece at 9:21 PM on August 7, 2005

.
Now I am depressed....
posted by bjgeiger at 9:21 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by octothorpe at 9:21 PM on August 7, 2005

God keswick, I'd almost forgotten about Max Robinson. I just googled - he's been gone since '88?! Man, so many public figures who've been part of my life are gone.

As I said on another forum, I always thought Jennings was so handsome and elegant. He was perhaps the last of an era when I still watched/cared about/trusted US TV news.
RIP
posted by NorthernLite at 9:22 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by sdrawkcab at 9:22 PM on August 7, 2005

He was in Berlin in the 1960s when the Berlin Wall was going up, and there in the '90s when it came down.

Wouldn't most people agree that it "came down" in 1989?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:23 PM on August 7, 2005

He announced his diagnosis of cancer four months ago. From what I've heard from friends who were close with him, he was very sick from the day of his diagnosis.
posted by Vidiot at 9:24 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by mikeweeney at 9:25 PM on August 7, 2005

What teece said. newscasters, anchors, and even journalists, in many cases, really disappoint me. He'll be missed.

Jennings said that he subscribed to the role of a newscaster as someone provinding a "rough draft of history", and I agree with this. It isn't about opinion, second-guesswork, or trying to provide balm for the scared, nervous masses. It's about providing the news. Shame we don't get any real unbiased news anymore.
posted by exlotuseater at 9:25 PM on August 7, 2005

*providing
posted by exlotuseater at 9:27 PM on August 7, 2005

For the life of me, I can't figure out why CNN has to run the SAME feed about Jennings' death simultaneously on CCN and Headline News. Put a crawler on Headline News and move on to the rest of the news. Please?

Ironically, in the piece that is now repeating ad nauseum, they point out that Jennings disdained media coverage of events that weren't really news in the big scheme of things, like O.J. Simpson or Lacey Peterson. I think he would have been equally disappointed in CNN clogging up both channels with a continous loop of his life and times.

Sheesh.

I feel sorry for his family; I'm sure they will miss him. My own dad was slightly younger than that when he died. But I would have been embarrassed if they had stopped even the local news to report over and over about his death (and my dad was, to an extent, a well-known figure in our town).
posted by Doohickie at 9:29 PM on August 7, 2005

.

Not a happy way to end the weekend :(
posted by UseyurBrain at 9:30 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by whatideserve at 9:30 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by cookie-k at 9:32 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by kyleg at 9:32 PM on August 7, 2005

He seemed the least pretentious of the network news guys. I especially admired the shows he put together for children when the first Iraq war took place, sitting there on a stool, taking questions from them about why and how and doing his best to put his answers in terms kids could understand. And he did it again after 9/11 and again for this war. A decent guy.
posted by Empty Planet at 9:38 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by moonbird at 9:38 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by Tin Man at 9:39 PM on August 7, 2005

Good lord, I'v had my head in the sand. Too bad. Rest in peace.
posted by FlamingBore at 9:40 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by dopamine at 9:40 PM on August 7, 2005

Seemed like a very civil, informed man, but he has critics, too. I've never particularly cared for any of the Big Three newscasts, but Peter Jennings appeared to be less crazy than Rather, and more articulate than Rather.
posted by davidmsc at 9:42 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by Dr. Zira at 9:46 PM on August 7, 2005

.

I had no idea that this was even a possibility... it makes me very sad to hear this.
posted by jeresig at 9:46 PM on August 7, 2005

The smarmster. The Smarm-man. The smarmamanian.
posted by HTuttle at 9:47 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by JHarris at 9:49 PM on August 7, 2005

.

As keswick said, my major memory is of a soothing voice as I sprawled in front of the TV, playing with my toys while some adult watched the news. I'm very sad to hear of his passing; he was the serious, grownup, yet soothing voice of my childhood.
posted by kalimac at 9:49 PM on August 7, 2005

Thank heavens davidmsc cleared up my lingering suspicion that the aforementioned dead man helped perpetuate 20 years of liberal bias.

God forbid the corpse cool before you pull that partisan bullshit, asshole.
posted by joe lisboa at 9:50 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by strikhedonia at 9:50 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by hifiparasol at 9:51 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by allaboutgeorge at 9:56 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by trip and a half at 9:59 PM on August 7, 2005

Well said, joe lisboa -- the Media Research Center's about as independent as Bill O'Reilly.
posted by Vidiot at 10:02 PM on August 7, 2005

His voice was so smooth that I have not even noticed his absence, and I actually watch the network generic 5:30 CST drivel.
I do have to say that the classical cigarettes = cancer = death pattern will not get much (eh...) news coverage despite the damage.
posted by buzzman at 10:03 PM on August 7, 2005

actually, davidmsc's link is pretty interesting, albeit laughable, and makes me respect Jennings that much more... while one may argue that it has a partisan slant, almost all of the quotes there are simple truth. Whether speaking of universal healthcare, poverty, esp. in regard to children, or the insular nature of Americans, he was right on the money.
posted by exlotuseater at 10:07 PM on August 7, 2005

Oh give it a rest, Vidiot and joe lisboa. Reagan wasn't dead thirty seconds before his corpse was being dragged across the cobbled streets of MetaFilter.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 10:08 PM on August 7, 2005

.

Memento mori.
posted by 517 at 10:11 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by mdeatherage at 10:11 PM on August 7, 2005

I got to meet and talk with him twice in Iowa during the caucuses last year when I was stumping for my candidate of choice. I had always heard from others that he was a bit of a pretty boy, and possibly the inspiration for William Hurt's character in Broadcast News, so I wasn't expecting much. But from what little time I had with him, he seemed smart, amiable, and just a really great guy. Got my picture with him one night, then on the morning of the caucuses or so saw him trudging up to ABC's news room in sub-zero temps at like 7 in the morning with a big ol' keyboard poking out of his satchel. He made sure to stop by and chat with us, and discuss our candidate's chances (he seemed to be a fan). Then he was off. I just thought it was so cool that he still carried his own keyboard around with him to do work on. For some reason I thought someone of his stature wouldn't be doing something like that anymore.

RIP Peter. :(
posted by tittergrrl at 10:11 PM on August 7, 2005

SeizeTheDay, I see where your confusion is coming from. See, Reagan wasn't a newscaster, he was a highly polarizing political figure.
posted by jonson at 10:21 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by rmannion at 10:22 PM on August 7, 2005

I don't agree that either man's obituary thread here was fair game for political mockery is all, jonson. But I appreciate you understanding my "confusion".
posted by SeizeTheDay at 10:25 PM on August 7, 2005

SeizeTheDay, you seem to think it's fair game when the MRC attacks Jennings, but not when joe lisboa or I defend him?
posted by Vidiot at 10:26 PM on August 7, 2005

davidmsc: Don't be so sure about that bias.

From Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point:

But Peter Jennings of ABC was much different. For Mondale, he scored 13.38 [emotional content of expression on 21-point scale]. But when he talked about Reagan, his face lit up so much he scored 17.44. Mullen and his colleagues went out of their way to try to come up with an innocent explanation for this. Could it be, for example, that Jennings is just more expressive in general than his colleagues? the answer semed to be no...Jennings didn't score any higher on the happy subjects or lower on the sad subjects than his counterparts....

Now here is where the study gets interesting. Mullen and his colleagues then called up people in a number of cities around the country who regularly watch the evening network news and asked them who they voted for. In every case, thoe who watched ABC voted for Reagan in far greater numbers than those who watched CBS or NBC.

posted by ed at 10:27 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by hopeless romantique at 10:29 PM on August 7, 2005

Interesting that a Canadian could have such a impactful non-entertainment media presence in America.
posted by soiled cowboy at 10:32 PM on August 7, 2005

I've listened to Peter Jennings for my entire life. He was a dedicated journalist and a kind man and one of my heroes. I'm deeply saddened.

Rest in peace.
posted by swerve at 10:41 PM on August 7, 2005

Thank you for teaching me that two wrongs make a right, seizetheday. The fact that others allegedly pissed in a thread about the death of a former president totally makes it right for davidmsc to do so, here, regarding Jennings.

Crappy diem.
posted by joe lisboa at 10:41 PM on August 7, 2005

Or someone who was a high-school dropout.
posted by Vidiot at 10:41 PM on August 7, 2005

Cause of Death: Cancer - Lung
posted by spock at 10:44 PM on August 7, 2005

I don't agree that either man's obituary thread here was fair game for political mockery is all

Oh man, I missed this gem on preview.

How dare you tell me to back off poor, widdle davidmsc for indulging in political mockery and still post the above with a straight fucking face? Are you on drugs? Are you out of your mind?!
posted by joe lisboa at 10:45 PM on August 7, 2005

See, Reagan wasn't a newscaster, he was a highly polarizing political figure.

While I think it is sad to see any 'corpse being dragged across the cobbled streets of MetaFilter' this soon after their death, it is hard to deny that Jennings was a highly polarizing media figure.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 10:46 PM on August 7, 2005

Tomorrow, an insulting irony will occur locally when this is reported by our fatuous TV "News Teams" between empty chit-chat about the weather, vapid personal asides and lame attempts at wit.


"O, farewell, honest soldier!"
posted by RavinDave at 10:48 PM on August 7, 2005

a highly polarizing media figure.

For the braindead, maybe. Or the brainwashed. "Quick, man, back to the talking points about the SCLM!"

And I take back my drugs comment, Seizetheday, that's just giving you too much benefit of the doubt. I realize now that you're either a liar or a hypocrite.
posted by joe lisboa at 10:49 PM on August 7, 2005

Reagan != Jennings. I mean, Jennings didn't turn his back on the AIDS crisis. Ok, I'm done with the political nonsense.
posted by exlotuseater at 10:51 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by dreamsign at 10:58 PM on August 7, 2005

Bummer, I always liked him.
posted by fenriq at 11:01 PM on August 7, 2005

One of the last of the pre-internet anchors. It's going to be just about impossible for anyone to simply get handed the audience the Rather/Jennings/Brokaw types got handed.

No disrespect to the man intended, but I think we're generally better off with more choices and fewer default authoritative voices, mellifluous or not, at the top.
posted by mediareport at 11:03 PM on August 7, 2005

.
posted by jcking77 at 11:12 PM on August 7, 2005

For the braindead, maybe

Anyone who disagrees with you must be brain-dead! You must win a lot of arguments with that tactic.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 11:42 PM on August 7, 2005

Another title member of The Canadian Conspiracy dead.
posted by Chuckles at 11:47 PM on August 7, 2005

Wow, this one got to me in a way that celebrities passing usually doesn't. Peter Jennings' newscast was my connection to the idea of an outside world as a kid. This is certainly the passing of an era.

.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 12:07 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by Balisong at 12:14 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by about_time at 12:17 AM on August 8, 2005

IMO, one of the last real newsmen.


.
posted by Radio7 at 12:25 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by Colloquial Collision at 12:25 AM on August 8, 2005

davidmsc and stee vat:

why don't you just keep it to yourselves? what are you getting out of deriding someone who just died?
posted by Hat Maui at 12:31 AM on August 8, 2005

Not wanting to labour the point, but don't you think they might have got the date of the fall of the Berlin freakin' Wall correct in an obit of a famous and well respected newsreader?

Late 1989 does not equal 1990s!
posted by uncanny hengeman at 12:36 AM on August 8, 2005

Jennings anchored ABC's Peabody-award winning coverage of Millennium Eve, "ABC 2000." Some 175 million Americans watched the telecast, making it the biggest live global television event ever

Surely Live Aid holds that record...
posted by the cuban at 12:38 AM on August 8, 2005

No disrespect to the man intended, but I think we're generally better off with more choices and fewer default authoritative voices, mellifluous or not, at the top.

Swings and roundabouts. The network evening broadcasts still get three or four times the audience figures of any cable show, and are seen more than any newspaper or website. They provide a common experience in relation to the Big World that's not necessarily matched by a profusion of customised echo-chambers. RIP.
posted by holgate at 1:07 AM on August 8, 2005

You must win a lot of arguments with that tactic.

Fuck off, Steve. You failed to cite a single fucking source / link / anything to the effect that Jennings was somehow a "polarizing" media figure, I call you out on your bullshit GOP rhetoric and you get all prissy-pissy about it?!

Grow a fucking pair and cite a source. Better yet, grow some fucking dignity and save it for another thread. If you're just pulling shit out of your goddamn asshole, then at least have the guts to admit you're making it up and/or speaking for yourself alone before knitting blanket statements out of horseshit in a fucking eulogy thread.

Pardon my language, but the lack of decorum in a thread about a man who just died has clouded my better fucking judgment. I know I'm contributing to the derail, but between davidmsc, steve@, and seizetheday, I feel like the LGF-funded, Nixon-bumpersticker-emblazened '86 Ford Escort just cut off a funeral procession whilst blasting "More Than A Feeling" from its tinny-ass speakers as the comb-over knuckleheads in back high-five & cackle like it's some display of Republican solidarity or something.

Jesus tapdancing Christ, you guys have transcended self-caricature.
posted by joe lisboa at 1:09 AM on August 8, 2005

Come come.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 1:20 AM on August 8, 2005

What kind of source does one cite to prove that a media figure is polarizing? Isn't the fact that just the argument here about the media figure is polarized proof enough?

Anyway, Rest in Peace Mr. Jennings... and condolences to the Jennings family
posted by alethe at 1:36 AM on August 8, 2005

Oh Peter Jennings
Won't you help me
I'm chasing you through the [foggy ball]
You turned around say I lost `em all
posted by euphorb at 1:37 AM on August 8, 2005

Isn't the fact that just the argument here about the media figure is polarized proof enough?

It certainly suggests that Steve@ is polarizing, I'll grant you that much, alethe. But, I'm sorry, a few wackjobs calling someone "polarizing" doesn't make it so.
posted by joe lisboa at 1:42 AM on August 8, 2005

davidmsc and stee vat:

why don't you just keep it to yourselves? what are you getting out of deriding someone who just died?

Is this a rhetorical question?
posted by Rothko at 1:50 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by loquacious at 2:03 AM on August 8, 2005

If that Gladwell quote is anything to go by, he damn well should be polarizing.

Anyway, you people have got to relax. Obituaries aren't really about false glowing accounts of a person's life (no matter what my Gr.13 english teacher used to say), and that goes doubly for MetaFilter obituary threads. Fact is, he wasn't even the second greatest Canadian broadcaster named Peter of his generation - considering the competition though, I guess he does get the bronze.

When did the TorontoFilter crowd hit this place anyway? We certainly weren't around in January of 2002...
posted by Chuckles at 2:08 AM on August 8, 2005

smoking did not kill peter jennings.
posted by Satapher at 2:17 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by LeeJay at 4:04 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 4:19 AM on August 8, 2005

wow. @ the derail and @ Jennings' death. Color me clueless about his condition as well as in the group that grew up with him. What contrast between his delivery/style and the utter noise machines on Fox/CNN/"news"-screamer dujour.

Between this and the Kentucky shooter/shootee post, another nick in our collective IQ.
posted by yoga at 4:31 AM on August 8, 2005

"There are a lot of people who think our job is to reassure the public every night that their home, their community and their nation is safe," [Peter Jennings] once told Jeff Alan, author of Anchoring America: The Changing Face of Network News.

"I don't subscribe to that at all. I subscribe to leaving people with essentially – sorry, it's a cliché – a rough draft of history. Some days it's reassuring, some days it's absolutely destructive."

Metafilter: some days it's reassuring, some days it's absolutely destructive.
posted by Hildegarde at 4:47 AM on August 8, 2005

Good grief, you idiots...I didn't attack Jennings -- I only pointed out that he had critics.
posted by davidmsc at 4:57 AM on August 8, 2005

.

damn.
posted by selfnoise at 5:04 AM on August 8, 2005

right, because invoking a criticism levelled by l. brent bozell's organization isn't attacking at all.

from poor, aggrieved, davidmsc's link:

On the home front, he resented covering the Clinton scandals, portraying them as tedious sideshows. He billed Republicans as destructive and mean-spirited and used his newscast to tout the virtues of liberals such as Jimmy Carter, Robert Rubin, Marion Wright Edelman and Betty Friedan.

way to live up to the hype, david. oh, and thanks for calling me an idiot, too, because i dared question your agenda.
posted by Hat Maui at 5:09 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by alumshubby at 5:32 AM on August 8, 2005

good one: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=1015438
posted by prodevel at 5:34 AM on August 8, 2005

i grew up watching jennings,

*nods*

Me too, though it was Rather in my parents' house for awhile.

.
posted by May Kasahara at 5:36 AM on August 8, 2005

i wasn't ready for not being ready for that.

i watched him during the first iraq war. my girlfriend at the time kept saying, 'i love him!' nor was i jealous. in relating those troubling events, the man showed actual concern.

.
posted by Hobbacocka at 5:37 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by jabberwock at 5:48 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:53 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by Tlogmer at 5:59 AM on August 8, 2005

I have a highlight video of ABC2000 and it was a great broadcast, I even wrote a diary entry on him once saying how calm he was.

.
posted by wheelieman at 6:06 AM on August 8, 2005

…
posted by bobloblaw at 6:23 AM on August 8, 2005

I find it truly astounding that Cronkite has outlived Jennings.
posted by jonmc at 6:45 AM on August 8, 2005

Jennings, whatever his political allegiance, was an intelligent man who provided an intelligent program of moderate breadth within the rather narrow constraints afforded him by the network. I mourn his passing for the hole it leaves in mainstream broadcast journalism, a hole which ABC will doubtless juggle to fill with someone "new" and "fresh" who "skews young". Sorry, I want a more mature, more experienced, ideally more intelligent person than myself providing a thoughful precis and useful context for the day's events. Not a face, a mind.

aav, Mr. Jennings.
posted by the sobsister at 6:53 AM on August 8, 2005

And that was the wheat grass that was.
posted by cavalier at 7:00 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by Busithoth at 7:06 AM on August 8, 2005

He had great hair.
posted by fungible at 7:10 AM on August 8, 2005

This is truly sad. I cannot count the number of hours I've spent listening to Peter Jennings. Best wishes to his family. He will be missed.

.
posted by purephase at 7:12 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by Chanther at 7:13 AM on August 8, 2005

Thank you for teaching me that two wrongs make a right, seizetheday. The fact that others allegedly pissed in a thread about the death of a former president totally makes it right for davidmsc to do so, here, regarding Jennings.

posted by joe lisboa at 12:41 AM CST on August 8 [!]


Fuck off, Steve.

posted by joe lisboa at 3:09 AM CST on August 8 [!]


~chuckle~
posted by Kwantsar at 7:35 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by kbanas at 7:37 AM on August 8, 2005

Not a face, a mind.


.
posted by voltairemodern at 7:42 AM on August 8, 2005

I think I should stop smoking today.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 7:42 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by dhoyt at 7:43 AM on August 8, 2005

When I was a kid and the Gulf War began officially I remember Jennings interrupting my Saturday morning cartoons for hours of news reports. He cut right into the cartoon and said "Sorry to interrupt your cartoons, kids, but there's something very important happening this morning in the Middle East" or words to that effect. What has always stuck with me about the man is that he apologized for interrupting the cartoons. No news anchor ever apologized for cutting into cartoons before.

Class act all the way as far as I'm concerned. He will be missed.
posted by Servo5678 at 7:45 AM on August 8, 2005

As someone who often travels abroad to work I always appreciated how Jennings spoke about being Canadian in his heart, that it was always with him no matter where he lived. I didn't follow his news career, but he was interviewed in depth several times by the CBC and other canuck media outlets. He came off as very thoughtful and, yes, a class act.

When did the TorontoFilter crowd hit this place anyway? We certainly weren't around in January of 2002...

Yes we were, but some of us (myself and 2 others that I know of) grieved privately since we knew Peter Gzowski personally.
posted by zarah at 8:19 AM on August 8, 2005

MetaFilter: Good grief!
posted by loquacious at 8:26 AM on August 8, 2005

. (For Peter Jennings.)

keswick said: Now there's nothing left but vacuous talking heads spouting newstainment on network news, and that's not a good thing.

God, how true. Maybe this is the legacy of my generation? *shudder*

. (For the death of news reporting.)
posted by chota at 8:33 AM on August 8, 2005

Not a face, a mind.

Exactly. Let's hope for more of those. I'll miss him.

.
posted by Skygazer at 8:45 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by mrbill at 8:50 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by deCadmus at 9:24 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by deborah at 9:39 AM on August 8, 2005

This was the very first thing I heard today on NPR. Very first thing I said was, "Well, shit."

I knew he was sick but didnt realize he was so close to the end. Poor guy. I saw him say on TV that he'd quit smoking for a long time and fired up again for a while after 9/11 . . . Damn.

.
posted by Medieval Maven at 9:43 AM on August 8, 2005

When I went to the Iowa Caucus last year, I went out drinking with some fellow canvassers at a place called Centro, and we sighted Jennings at the far side of the place. Someone in our group had a FOAF connection, so he went up to introduce himself. And then we all went up to introduce ourselves, and I asked to take a picture with him with my phone camera. He was gracious and said yes, so I hold out my arm to take the shot, then show him the picture.

He looks at it and says, "Your head's bigger than mine! Let's take another one!" So, this time, he holds the camera and takes the shot.

A cool moment. Good night, Peter.
posted by RakDaddy at 9:58 AM on August 8, 2005

.

the last major network news anchor worth a damn. his was the only coverage i trusted on 9/11.

television news is now truly a wasteland.
posted by xthlc at 10:21 AM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by SisterHavana at 10:48 AM on August 8, 2005

I remeber after 9/11 when TVArchive had all the US feeds available to view.

When the first tower came down, Jennings said, (from memory),

"The whole tower? The whole tower came down?"
"When was the last time America was attacked like this, Pearl Harbor?"
"There may have been thousands of people in that building .. and the police and rescue people. A terrible tragedy"

The other networks, NBC and CBS specifically, were airing,

"We have an unconfirmed report that the first tower has come down, like we said, UNCONFIRMED"
"This as the result of what the White House has been terming, A Terrorist Attack. Again, UNCONFIRMED reports that the first tower has collapsed, we'll find out more info."

By the time they "Confimered" the first tower came down, the second was already down.

So basically, Jennings and ABC had the confidence and guts to tell us what was happening becuase they saw it. The other networks were too busy trying to cover their butts by attriubuting what they were seeing to other people. To nervous to tell us what was happening, only what their sources were telling them what was happening.

If they ever bring the TV archive back up, be sure to compare, you'll have a new respect for the man.
posted by jboy55 at 11:24 AM on August 8, 2005

First, sorry to hear he's gone.

Second, I am hypnotized by davidmsc's link.
Voters didn’t give Bill Clinton enough credit: “I’d like to start, if I may, with what I think you may think is a puzzlement. You’ve reduced the deficit. You’ve created jobs. Haiti hasn’t been an enormous problem. You’ve got a crime bill with your assault weapon ban in it. You got NAFTA, you got GATT, and 50 percent of the people don’t want you to run again. Where’s the disconnect there?”


If an interviewer asked Bush basically the exact same question (altered in the details, as necessary), wouldn't it be framed as an attack?
posted by iron chef morimoto at 11:24 AM on August 8, 2005

Those details wuld require a lot of altering. (Bush reduced the deficit?) Maybe that is why it would be considered an attack.
posted by jenovus at 12:57 PM on August 8, 2005

*would. Sorry. Live Preview'd again.
posted by jenovus at 12:57 PM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by ben-o at 1:39 PM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by sacre_bleu at 2:37 PM on August 8, 2005

joe lisboa wrote:

but the lack of decorum in a thread about a man who just died

and seems to have failed to notice that HE is the lack of decorum in this thread.

Sad news for the Jennings family. RIP Peter.
posted by a3matrix at 2:59 PM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by fletchmuy at 3:00 PM on August 8, 2005

Rakdaddy : >

(what is it with TV people and gigantic heads?)
posted by amberglow at 3:10 PM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by cinematique at 3:31 PM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by Ruki at 4:59 PM on August 8, 2005

He was my favorite newscaster. I always Tivo'd the Nightly News but I stopped watching when he left. Just wasn't the same.

It's a shame people can't control themselves in a thread like this.
posted by smackfu at 5:04 PM on August 8, 2005

.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 5:11 PM on August 8, 2005

jboy55 beat me to it. 9/11 will always be tied to Jennings for me--that moment when the first tower came down, live, and even Jennings expressed disbelief.

As others have put it, he cared about humans and humanity. How many newscasters and journalists can you say that about? How many people can you say that about? Probably not Rush and Ann.

RIP.
posted by bardic at 5:24 PM on August 8, 2005

Coming in here a little late, but I imagine the reason why the question above would probably be framed as an "attack" now is that we no longer have any context for critical questioning. If a reporter asks a public official a subject that is difficult for that official, that's what a reporter is supposed to do, it is not "an attack."
posted by aaronetc at 6:05 PM on August 8, 2005

Most of the people I would describe as "really caring about people" don't get married four times.

Just sayin'.
posted by Doohickie at 6:08 PM on August 8, 2005

Liz Taylor is a SAINT, you cockbucket.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 6:12 PM on August 8, 2005

Peter Jennings was an intellectual (high school drop out) force whose integrity (three times divorced) moved the country (Canadian citizen who became American for estate purposes).

He was a pretty boy who fooled a captive audience. I have no doubt he had a indulgent life and is owed no great pity. The fools in this are those who think there's something to mourn here.
posted by paleocon at 6:24 PM on August 8, 2005

Evidently Kwantsar and a3matrix missed the bit where I apologized in advance for contributing to the derailment / lack of decorum initiated by others, but far be it from me to get in the way of their anemic chucklin' and lame attempt(s) to appear clever.

Sweet victory is yours, the internets are safe again!1!!1
posted by joe lisboa at 6:33 PM on August 8, 2005

Wow, paleocon, savage indictment of an "intellectual (high school drop out)" (ever hear of an auto-didact? or why such people are generally considered admirable?)...whose integrity (three times divorced) (unlike Ronnie "Molderin'" Reagan who knocked up Nancy, then found himself forced to Do the Right Thing or Newt Gingrich who dumped one wife after she'd gotten a cancer diagnosis and another one after she'd been diagnosed with MS or...) moved the country (Canadian citizen who became American for estate purposes) (because no conservative would ever exploit the tax code for personal gain)".

You're quite the little cunt, aren't you?
posted by the sobsister at 7:29 PM on August 8, 2005

paleocon wins for being the biggest asshole in this thread, and I thought the race was already over.
posted by smackfu at 7:36 PM on August 8, 2005

Too many parentheses.
posted by TwelveTwo at 8:54 PM on August 8, 2005

Sorry to see this guy go.

Paleocon, I didn't like his politics, but when someone dies, you either say things kind, or nothing at all. (Unless the person is a bona fide criminal or terrorist.)
posted by ParisParamus at 9:42 PM on August 8, 2005

anyone else have zero emotional attachment to this man?
posted by Satapher at 12:30 AM on August 9, 2005

i mean, the guy was 67, he lived a better life than 99% of every human being who has EVER lived on this planet... why is this such a somber circumstance? the only deaths you are mourning are your own.
posted by Satapher at 12:39 AM on August 9, 2005

Great point, Satapher. Were you getting all John Donne on us at the end there?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 1:41 AM on August 9, 2005

Late to the game as usual, but it was interesting how much foreign experience he had, and how that impacted his newscasts. He was truly the end of an era of informed newscasting, and it's a sad day to see him go. RIP, and condonlences to his family.
posted by somethingotherthan at 2:24 AM on August 9, 2005

I didn't like his politics...

What were his politics, actually? He was a Canadian who became a U.S. citizen. Doesn't that more or less put him automatically right of center?

With all this nonsense chatter about liberal bias, he always seemed straightforward, transparent and level-headed to me. RIP, Mr. Jennings.
posted by psmealey at 4:20 AM on August 9, 2005

psmealy: he exhibited a strong sympathy towards Yasser & Co.
posted by ParisParamus at 5:38 AM on August 9, 2005

Thank GOD I came back to this thread before comments were closed so I could acknowledge PinkStainlesTail's calling me a "cockbucket". Nice epithet, that.
posted by Doohickie at 8:42 PM on September 6, 2005