Many’s the Time I Thought to Myself…
…”Oh Peter, just shut-up“. But we’ve watched you from the day you sat in Frank Reynolds’ chair. And we never again watched anyone else. The Major Dad household will miss you immensely.
Immensely.
And Peter? Thank you.
August 8, 2005 8:42 am 
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Yep. Oh sure, he was another of those damn Canadians, but I liked him the best of the anchors.
Jeesh, I remember when Frank Reynolds died, too. Is ABC the Black Widow Network, or what?
Oh JINX, JINX!! That’s exactly what I said to Major Dad when I heard the news this morning. Every other network anchor gets to retire and live to a ripe old age (How old is Walter now?), but they just die at ABC. I’d be sacrificing chickens and schmearing blood around, before I’d even think about taking over at The ABC Evening News.
We should hold a contest to see who we’d like to nominate for the job…hehehehe
He was always my favorite of the anchors. Sad.
Oh, it is, Red. Our 5:30 to 6:00 half hour every evening has been kind of adrift since he signed off. Now that he’s gone, sheesh. Creatures of habit in this household, I tell you.
It makes me wonder, given that marvelous elegance he had, both of delivery and personal style, would someone as enormously talented today be given the chance to shine? Peter was a high school drop-out and so much value is placed on a sheepskin now, for even getting a toe in the door. Makes me wonder what we’re missing by that particular ‘college credits versus life credits’ obsession.
Funny, the CAG and I were talking about that this morning, too. I loved Frank, and I thought there was a guy before him who got killed in Africa while reporting, who was with ABC.
THS, I think the j-schools have sucked the life out of the professional media. The generation after Jennings grew up in a rarefied atmosphere where they were essentially told they were a kind of secular priesthood. People like Peter Jennings and his predecessors instead treated it like a JOB, and their product was the better for it.
While I hardly agreed with everything he said, I’ll miss him.
I think you’re right Dave. So few of the fresh faces on camera as ‘news readers’ have any reporting background at all. Part of the problem is also the MSM bias we all hear about ~ what might have made compelling reports years ago has a good chance of never seeing the light of day now.
Another media type I’d normally quarrel with is Keith Olbermann, but his tribute column today really lays out just what ‘made’ Peter Jennings because he loved the JOB. It’s great the way he sets the chronology out. I very much enjoyed the read.
There may be hope for Olbermann, then…
I second Dave’s comment about j-school, having wasted my college years as a journalism major. The worst thing that ever happened to the news was reporters suddenly thinking that they were great thinkers. That NYT commercial just sums it up perfectly: “I love how they… surround a story, and give me so many ways to think about it.”
Jennings, of all the major anchors, seemed to be least interested in shaping the news. Tune in tonight to Letterman, who will probably have something quite moving in tribute, since Jennings was a frequent and well-liked guest.