News Anchor Peter Jennings

[TDWoj]

Broadcaster Peter Jennings dies at 67

CTV.ca News Staff

Canadian-born Peter Jennings, a pillar of American TV journalism for decades, died of lung cancer Sunday at age 67.

"Peter died with his family around him, without pain and in peace. He knew he'd lived a good life," his family said in a statement.

As anchor of ABC News World News Tonight, Jennings presented the news to millions of viewers each night.

"Peter has been our colleague, our friend, and our leader in so many ways. None of us will be the same without him,'' said ABC News President David Westin.

Along with Tom Brokaw of NBC and Dan Rather of CBS, Jennings occupied one of the "Big Three" pinnacles in American TV journalism, presenting the news to millions of viewers.

Tributes were pouring in Monday for Jennings.

"Peter always was a natural to television," CTV's Chief News Anchor and Senior News Editor Lloyd Robertson told Canada AM. "In my personal view, he was the best of the breed. I don't think there was anybody as good as Peter Jennings."

"He was an incredible journalist," Canada's Consul General Pamela Wallin told CTV Newsnet. "He was also a very elegant and kind gentleman, and I really loved that about him."

Jennings' smooth delivery and impeccable sense of personal style were trademarks, making him especially popular with urban audiences.

But both Rather and Brokaw spoke of the fierce competitor inside Jennings' graceful exterior.

He's the "last person you wanted to see" competing against you on a story, said Rather in Beirut, Lebanon on ABC's Good Morning America.

The rivalry, however, was friendly, added Brokaw.

"We all made each other better. And I think that's the essential truth of the relationship that we had," Brokaw said from McLeod, Montana.

Jennings loved to be front and centre during a major story. During the week of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack on the United States, he spent more than 60 hours on air.

"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," he told author Jeff Alan.

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

While Jennings was always proud of being Canadian, he became a dual citizen in 2003. But Robertson said Jennings "never lost his Canadian soul."

He said Canadians, especially ex-patriot Canadians in the U.S., could count on the fact that Jennings was certain to report on any significant news stories from Canada on his broadcast.

"He became a significant Canadian voice in American television."

Wallin added Jennings maintained his interest in Canadian politics "right to the very end."

"He was always interested in what was going on at home and made a great effort to make sure that America understood some of the issues between the two countries."

Commenting on his coverage of 9/11, Wallin said Jennings "so understood the American psyche and American psychology. And perhaps it was in part because he was an outsider, he was able to peer in and see that clearly and translate it back to viewers."

His start

Jennings entered the working world of broadcasting as a news reporter in Brockville, Ont. and quickly became an anchor at CTV.

But while covering the U.S. Democratic national convention in 1964, his work caught the eye of ABC's news president, who offered him a job.

ABC gambled on making him an anchor -- at age 26. His first broadcast was Feb. 1, 1965. In retrospect, even Jennings thought that was a bit much, seeing as he was competing against CBS's Walter Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley at NBC.

Critics pounded on him. He lasted three years before being reassigned as a foreign correspondent -- an area in which he thrived. The Middle East became his special bailiwick. He earned a Peabody Award for a 1974 profile of Anwar Sadat.

In 1978, Jennings returned to the anchor desk as part of a three-person team. He was based in London. But when Frank Reynolds, one of the other anchors, died from cancer, Jennings was made sole anchor, starting Sept. 5, 1983.

In 1986, Jennings rose to the top of the television ratings and stayed there for a decade. His foreign experience shone through. Even the show's name, World News Tonight, suggested a more sophisticated approach.

Fans responded to his intelligent, controlled style. Jennings said in one interview the anchor should keep his or her emotions under control.

Not only fans recognized Jennings' approach. A 1993 survey by Broadcasting and Cable magazine found Jennings to be the best anchor. Washington Journalism Review named him Anchor of the Year three straight years.

Times, however, change. Americans lost interest in the world, and NBC's Tom Brokaw surpassed Jennings in the latter 1990s. But Jennings was always close.

Brokaw retired in November 2004 and Rather stepped down in March.

When Jennings, a long-time smoker, announced he had lung cancer, he said: "I will continue to do the broadcast.

"On good days, my voice will not always be like this," he said, referring to how husky and strained it sounded.

He would never appear on air again.

"He knew that it was an uphill struggle. But he faced it with realism, courage, and a firm hope that he would be one of the fortunate ones,'' Westin said. "In the end, he was not.''

Peter Jennings is survived by his wife, Kayce Freed, and two children, Elizabeth, 25, and Christopher, 23.

 

[Mama San]

A sad ending to an otherwise brilliant career!!
He was one of the best.
May he rest in peace.
God bless,
Mama san

 

[Amos Stevens]

I turned the tv on during the night & they had a special report on about his death...I didn't realize it was just 4 months ago he left tv-he worked as long as he could!
My best wishes to his family

 

[Anneliese]

Sad News.I liked him.My thoughts and prayers go out to the family.

Anneliese

 

[ORANGATUANG]

Sad news he was one of the best i liked watching him on the early morning american news..didnt really have time for the others but he had that certain touch...Those 4 months have flown by since he retired ..My condolences to his family and freinds..

 

[Littledragon]

Peter Jennings: A lifetime of being curious.

(CNN) -- If the anchorman in "Broadcast News" had been based on Peter Jennings, it would have been a very different movie.

In the movie, the producers in the control room talk to the anchor in his earpiece, telling him what to say on the air. In the Peter Jennings version, it's the producers who would have worn the earpieces to get directions from the anchor. In the movie, it's the anchor who sweats. In the Peter Jennings version, the producers sweat. That was ABC's "World News Tonight With Peter Jennings."

During my first week on the job as a writer for Peter Jennings, I did not have to write a single word. It was January 1991, the week American bombs began falling on Baghdad in the first Gulf War. The news was breaking so quickly in those first days of the war it was virtually all ad-lib all the time for Peter, who had already been in the anchor chair for nearly a decade.

I thought: "What have I gotten myself into"? This man can ad-lib better than I can write. Peter was on the air live, hour after hour, without a script, instantly synthesizing and explaining for the audience what we knew, and, just as importantly, what we did not know. Students of journalism should study those tapes.

Of course, most of Peter's programs were scripted. The three of us who wrote for him would submit our copy. And then we would wait -- to see how our writing would be "Peterized." Peterization could take many forms. Sometimes it was a stylistic tweak to make the writing sound more like -- well -- Peter. Other times Peter would pose a question that led the writer closer to the heart of the story. Other times he'd come over, with his left foot on the floor and right foot on your desk, and do a stream of consciousness rewrite.

Then there were those times Peter would love your first draft so much he'd look at you and ask, with a twinkle in his eye: "Did you write that yourself?" Yes, he loved to rib the people he worked with. But his ribs could take it, too.

For example, Peter had a reputation for being somewhat frugal. When I heard he had a personal trainer who was having him run up and down the steps of his apartment building while so many others were using expensive Stairmasters, I joked that if there's one thing Peter can't resist, it's free stairs. When I told that joke in front of a large gathering, Peter doubled over with laughter. He really did have a sense of humor about himself.

What made it particularly difficult to work for Peter was that he might love a script in the morning and leave it at night. On more than a few occasions, he would decide that a script he approved of at 10 a.m. was lacking in style or substance at 6 p.m. We would have just minutes to rewrite it prior to air time. He wasn't looking to make our lives difficult. He was looking for ways to make the program better. As long as there was time left, there was time to improve.

When Peter Jennings interviewed me for the writer's job, he told me: "On this program we never talk down to the audience." He truly loved to communicate what he learned and believed the audience wanted to share in that learning experience. And we all believed that helped account for the many years his program was No. 1 in the ratings.

Many of us pop psychologists who worked for Peter traced his obsession with learning new things to his teenage years. We thought it was Peter's way of compensating for never having graduated from high school.

He pushed himself to always learn new things. He pushed his staff to teach him new things. And he was determined to communicate all the exciting new things he learned to his viewers. A lifetime of satisfying his curiosity worked to the benefit of his audience.

There was one question he asked me in my job interview that said a lot about how he viewed the learning process. What do you like to do outside of work? He wasn't trying to figure out whether I'd be a fun guy to have a beer with. He wanted to know that I had a life outside work -- that I had experiences that I could bring to the table to make my writing and observations richer. This emphasis on life experience is what gave Peter such an edge in his anchoring. Time and time again he would rewrite a story incorporating some anecdote from his years of reporting from all over the world. There was no substitute for Peter's experience.

On a personal level, Peter was warm and engaging. No matter what your station in life, if Peter Jennings met you he'd have questions for you. It was clear he felt he had something to learn from virtually everyone he met. And his viewers knew they had something to learn from Peter.