One Last Hurrah for a Veteran Reporter

On Sunday August 7, anchor Peter Jennings died of lung cancer. Peter hosted the news programs on ABC and was my favorite of the network news triumvirate, of which NBC’s Tom Brokaw and CBS’s Dan Rather were the other two members.

Jennings was charming and had a creamy, dreamy voice, and he was tall, slim, handsome and elegant. I liked Rather too, but in a different way. Rather had that endearing cuteness of a prune-faced pug and the soft nature of a grandfather. Brokaw is the only one I never took a liking to. He lacks the elegance or the caring nature of the others and gives off the “I’m hot shit” vibe.

The truly sad part about Jennings’ death was that he was still a relatively young man, only 67 years old (although he didn´t look a day over 55). However, I am particularly happy to know that he was a scrapper up until the very end. Even when he was too sick to show up to work, he would call in to the story conferences. Now that’s a man who loved and cherished his work. That’s a man I respect.

Knowing all of this makes the cause of his death all the more cruelly ironic. Jennings was a smoker, but he’d given up cigarettes, until 9/11 came along. The stress of round the clock reporting on the tragic event caused him to take up smoking again. God is funny that way.

Now the networks are scrambling to replace the triumvirate since one member is dead and the others retired. The big question for anchors across the country is who is going to get those coveted spots? I doubt the general public gives a rat’s ass, but news is big business in the States. And the only thing I ask of the big business run networks is that they choose reporters that don’t characterize the current media climate. And by that I mean, can we please get some standup, honest, old time reporters please?

Peter, you will be missed.