« But Pancakes are on the Menu... | Main | Attention Russian Women: British Men are the BEST...no really they are! »
August 14, 2005
Peter Jennings Leaves the World Far Too Soon
On September 11, 2001, I awakened my parents to tell them that one of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers had just collapsed. In reflecting on that morning, I must have sounded like a delusional maniac. Not only was I crying when I delivered the news, you must remember that at the time, my family was still living in a pre-9/11 world, a world in which the idea that terrorists would fly airplanes into buildings was completely foreign. Thus, to see their 23-year-old son standing at the foot of their bed, weeping, and telling them that the country was under attack, well let’s just say that if my parents didn’t know me better, they probably would have thought I was on a bad acid trip.
For the next 20 hours or so, my family, especially my dad and me, were glued to the television sets. Due to my dad’s insatiable sports appetite, the family room in my parents’ house features three big screen television sets positioned next to each other. On 9/11, the sports-friendly set-up allowed us to monitor coverage on various television channels throughout the day. And although we did our fair share of flipping early on, it became clear quite quickly that the middle television would be the television that our eyes would watch and that our ears would hear. That television was tuned to ABC and Peter Jennings. Jennings was the person whom we wanted to help guide us through that horrific Tuesday, and for my money, he was a remarkable guide.
At some point during each of the last seven days, I’ve found myself thinking, “I can’t believe Peter Jennings is gone.” I watched the amazing two-hour commercial-free tribute that ABC aired on Wednesday night (you can order a copy by clicking here) and thought the program was a superb tribute to a man who was simply a wonderful reporter. Whether you think Jennings was biased to the left or too sympathetic to the Palestinians or too demanding on his staff, it is difficult to argue that he was anything short of a brilliant broadcaster. Although he lacked a college education (and a high school diploma for that matter), Jennings always struck me as an authoritative figure on whatever story he was covering. A lot of people can read teleprompters and Peter Jennings could certainly read one with the best of them, but Jennings excelled when he was working without a script. That's when he was the true master.
At the close of the two-hour special, there was a shot of an empty ABC World News Tonight set, Peter’s set. A lone trumpet player appeared standing at the bottom left of the screen and played the World News Tonight theme in a very slow fashion, deliberately drawing out each note. The notes had a sad quality to them and have stuck in my head. It’s hard to accept the fact that we’ll hear the World News Tonight theme time and time again in the future, but the theme will never be followed by a living Peter Jennings saying something like, “We begin tonight in Baghdad,” or “Earlier today, the President asked Congress to....” There will be new anchors, young anchors, and they will grow in the anchor chair just as Jennings grew, and they too will be superb broadcasters. But this wasn’t the way this was supposed to happen. Peter Jennings should be in the World News Tonight anchor chair for years to come. Count me as one person who has been quite sad knowing he’ll never sit in that chair again.
Peter Jennings dead far too young at the age of 67.
Comments
Nice tribute. We've always been an ABC News family -- I seem to remember World News Tonight all the way back to coverage of the 1984 election, when I was ten. No small feat considering that I've forgotten most of last week.
Posted by: Neel Mehta at August 16, 2005 06:53 AM
