Peter Jennings

Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM (July 29, 1938 – August 7, 2005) was the lead news anchor for the ABC network from the 1980s to the 2000s. He had anchored ABC World News Tonight since 1978 and was the sole anchor from 1983 through April 2005. Jennings died of lung cancer on the evening of August 7 2005 at the age of 67.

Anchor career

In 1961, Jennings became, with Baden Langton, the first anchors of a Canadian private national news program. The two were the first coanchors of CTV National News. The program had varying anchor teams in its first years, although Jennings was the sole constant. He was with the program until 1964. During his years at CTV, he also covered the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, being present at the Dallas police station where Lee Harvey Oswald was held.

Related Topics:
1961 - Baden Langton - CTV National News - 1964 - Assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy - Lee Harvey Oswald

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His first stint as ABC's anchor took place in 1965 on the appropriately named Peter Jennings with the News. At 26, he was and is the youngest-ever American network news anchor. He could not compete with older anchors of other networks such as Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. His Canadian English accent, grammar, and diction and mistakes from inexperience with American topics led to his being replaced in 1968, and derided by critics as "glamourcaster" or "anchorboy."

Related Topics:
1965 - Walter Cronkite - Chet Huntley - David Brinkley - Canadian English - 1968

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Determined to rebuild his career, Jennings stayed with ABC as a foreign correspondent. He reported from the Middle East during the Yom Kippur War and the Lebanese civil war. Jennings's expertise served him well, as he received notice as the ABC reporter on-scene during the Munich Olympics Massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists.

Related Topics:
Foreign correspondent - Middle East - Yom Kippur War - Lebanese civil war - Munich Olympics Massacre

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Beginning in 1978, Jennings was part of a three-anchor team on World News Tonight, with Frank Reynolds in Washington, Max Robinson from Chicago, and Jennings from London. A year later, he married his third wife, author Kati Marton, with whom he had two children, Elizabeth and Christopher.

Related Topics:
World News Tonight - Frank Reynolds - Max Robinson - Kati Marton

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After Reynolds' unexpected death in 1983, ABC News President Roone Arledge first chose Tom Brokaw, NBC's White House Correspondent, to take the top job as main news anchor. Brokaw turned down the offer and took over as sole anchor on the NBC Nightly News. Jennings was then selected, starting on August 9, 1983, and became a very influential TV personality. On December 31, 1999, 175 million people tuned into at least a portion of his network's Millennium Eve special "ABC 2000," also known as "ABC 2000 Today."

Related Topics:
Roone Arledge - Tom Brokaw - NBC - NBC Nightly News - August 9 - 1983 - December 31 - 1999 - Millennium

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For more than two decades, Jennings was a presence in many American homes every night. Along with the two other pillars of the so-called "Big Three"?Tom Brokaw of NBC and Dan Rather of CBS?Jennings had, in the early 1980s, ushered in the era of the TV news anchor as lavishly compensated, globe-trotting star. The magnitude of a news event could be measured by whether Jennings and his counterparts on the other two networks showed up on the scene. Jennings was second in the ratings race behind NBC's Tom Brokaw and later to his successor Brian Williams. Brokaw's retirement in December 2004, followed by Rather's forced resignation from the evening news in March 2005, and finally Jennings's death, brought that era to a close.

Related Topics:
Tom Brokaw - Dan Rather - Brian Williams - Rather's forced resignation

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Jennings was a frequent target of charges of "liberal bias" by certain conservative groups, such as the Media Research Center.http://www.mrc.org/realitycheck/2003/fax20030903pj.asp He was criticized for being biased in favor of Proposals for a Palestinian state due to his personal romantic relationship with Hanan Ashwari, a one-time spokeswoman for the Palestine Liberation Organization, by many conservatives and some Jews, although it should be noted that both his third and fourth wives were Jewish. Supporters of Jennings contended that most critical reports of him consisted of inaccuracies or out-of-context quotes. Nonetheless, George W. Bush was the first President in recent memory who did not sit down for an interview with Jennings.

Related Topics:
Media Research Center - Proposals for a Palestinian state - Palestine Liberation Organization - Jews - George W. Bush

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During his career, Jennings had reported from every major world capital and war zone, and from all 50 U.S. states, according to the network. According to his official ABC biography, he was "in Berlin in the 1960s when the Berlin Wall was going up," and there again "in the late 1980s when it came down." He seemed to draw on that collective experience?as well as his practiced ability to calmly describe events as they unfolded live?not long after two hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Over the course of that day, and those that immediately followed, he would spend more than 60 hours on the air in what Tom Shales of The Washington Post praised as a tour de force of interviewing and explanatory broadcast journalism. Many would also take notice of his absence in Rome, Italy at the death of Pope John Paul II as well as in Asia during the aftermath of the tsunami.

Related Topics:
Struck the World Trade Center - September 11 - 2001 - Tom Shales - The Washington Post - Rome, Italy - Death of Pope John Paul II - Tsunami

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