RIP Peter Jennings

When I was in college, we had a few posters of network news items hanging in the journalism department. But I remember that the one that caught my attention most was one with the ABC news crew. Peter Jennings was in the middle and on both sides were such people as Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Ted Koppel, etc. I should have known then it was an omen of something to come.

I can't say Peter was my favorite news anchor when I was a kid because my family tended to watch NBC and Tom Brokaw, but I knew who Jennings was and I certainly found him more interesting to watch than Dan Rather (my apologies to any Dan Rather fans). When I graduated college though, my first job was with a local ABC affiliate, so I had to switch allegiances. :-) I started learning how the innards of a news organization worked. I remember watching Peter's wonderful series "The Century" and buying the book when it came out not long after. I remember his 24 hour broadcast on New Year's Eve and watched him ring in the year 2000 in every country on the globe. I remember watching him keep incredible calm during the horror of 9/11 and the days after.

Sometimes I thought he was the consumate professional...sometimes I thought he was a smug bastard...but I couldn't then and can't now deny his desire to be a good journalist. Whether he succeeded is up to the individual viewer, but you have to respect him for at least trying.

Watching the video tonight of him during the 60's and 70's was amazing. People who work in TV news (that are my age or younger) will understand what I'm saying when it's unreal to think he'd been around since before the eras of computers and digital video and the internet. Back when photogs used honest-to-goodness film and then had to rush back to the station to get it developed and edited. When TelePrompTers were nothing more than sheets of paper being run across bright lights and mirrors. When the set was basically a wall with a clock, a globe, maybe a TV set, and one guy at a desk, usually with a cigarette burning off to the side.

Damned cigarettes. That's what started this mess to begin with.

This is one of those times when you just ramble on simply to get your thoughts down and out of your head. Kind of like a digital pensive (Harry Potter reference for the two of you out there who don't know what a pensive is). I'll make more sense tomorrow.

Rest in peace, Peter and prayers to your family and friends.