User:Gzkn/Sandbox/Peter Jennings

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Peter Jennings
Born July 29, 1938
Toronto, Ontario
Died August 7, 2005
New York City, New York

Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings, CM (July 29, 1938 – August 7, 2005) was a Canadian-American journalist and news anchor. He was the sole anchor of ABC's World News Tonight from 1983 to 2005. A high school dropout, he transformed himself into one of television's most prominent journalists. Jennings was a heavy smoker throughout his life, and he died of complications from lung cancer.

Jennings started his career early, hosting a Canadian radio show at the age of nine. In 1965, ABC News tapped him to anchor its flagship evening news program. His inexperience marred his first short stint in the anchor chair, and Jennings became a foreign correspondent in 1968, honing his reporting skills in the Middle East.

He returned as one of World News Tonight's three anchors in 1978 before being elevated to sole anchor in 1983. Jennings formed part of the "Big Three" news anchors that dominated the landscape of American evening news throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Having always been fascinated with the United States, Jennings became a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada in 2003. His death, which closely followed the retirements of Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, marked the end of the "Big Three" era.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Jennings was the older of two children of Elizabeth Osborne and Charles Jennings, a prominent radio broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Jennings started his broadcasting career at the age of nine, hosting Peter's People, a half-hour, Saturday morning CBC Radio show for kids. His father was on a business trip to the Middle East when the show debuted; upon returning, Charles Jennings, who harbored a deep dislike of nepotism, was outraged to learn that the network had put his son on the air.[1]

When he was 11, Jennings started attending Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, where he excelled in sports. After the CBC transferred his father to its Ottawa Headquarters in the early 1950s, Jennings switched to the Lisgar Collegiate Institute.[1] He struggled academically, and Jennings later surmised that it was out of "pure boredom" that he flunked out in 10th grade. "I loved girls," he said. "I loved comic books. And for reasons I don't understand, I was pretty lazy."[2]

Although Jennings dreamed of following in his father's footsteps and becoming a broadcaster, his first job was as a bank teller for the Royal Bank of Canada. He had hoped that the company would assign him to its Havana branch; instead, it plopped him in the tiny town of Prescott, Ontario, before transferring him to its nearby Brockville branch.[1] During this time, he explored acting by appearing in several amateur musical theatre productions with the Orpheus Musical Theatre Society, including Damn Yankees and South Pacific.[3]

It was in Brockville that the 21-year-old Jennings started his meteoric rise in broadcasting. In 1959, CFJR, a local radio station, hired him as a member of its news department; many of his stories, including his coverage of a local train wreck, were picked up by the CBC.[4] By 1961, Jennings had joined the staff of CJOH-TV, then a new television station in Ottawa. When the station launched in March 1961, Jennings was initially an interviewer and co-producer for Vue, a late-night news program. His producers saw a youthful attractiveness in him that resembled that of Dick Clark, and Jennings soon found himself hosting Club Thirteen, a dance show similar to American Bandstand.[5]

The next year, CTV, Canada's first private TV station and a fledgling competitor of his father's network, hired the 24-year-old Jennings as co-anchor of its late-night national newscast.[6] While reporting for CTV, he was the first Canadian journalist to arrive in Dallas after the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.[1] In 1964, CTV sent Jennings to cover the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. There, he ran into Elmer W. Lower, then president of ABC News, who offered him a job as a correspondent for the American network, an opportunity Jennings initially rejected.[7] "The job was pretty intimidating for a guy like me in a tiny city in Canada," explained Jennings. "I thought, What if I screw up? What if I fail?"[2] Three months later though, he changed his mind and packed his bags for America.[7]

[edit] America's youngest anchor

Jennings initially started reporting from ABC's New York bureau.[7] At the time, ABC lagged behind the more established news divisions of NBC and CBS, and the network was trying to attract younger viewers. On February 1, 1965, ABC plucked the fresh-faced Canadian from the field and placed him at the anchor desk of Peter Jennings With the News, then a 15-minute nightly newscast. He replaced Ron Cochran, a fellow Canadian.[1] At 26, Jennings was, and remains, the youngest-ever American network news anchor.[8] "ABC was in bad shape at the time," Jennings said. "They were willing to try anything, and, to demonstrate the point, they tried me."[9]

An inexperienced Jennings had a hard time keeping up with his rivals at the other networks, and he could not compete with the venerable newscasts of Walter Cronkite at CBS and Chet Huntley and David Brinkley at NBC. American audiences disliked Jennings' Canadian English accent and how he said "leftenant" instead of "lieutenant." He mangled the pronunciation of "Appomattox," and misidentified the Marines' hymn as Anchors Aweigh at Lyndon Johnson's presidential inauguration; his general ignorance of American affairs and culture led critics to deride Jennings as a "glamorcaster".[1] "It was a little ridiculous when you think about it," he later reflected. "A 26-year-old trying to compete with Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley. I was simply unqualified."[10] After three rocky years at the anchor desk, Jennings called it quits and became a foreign correspondent.[6]

[edit] Foreign correspondent

Jennings was determined to build his journalism credentials abroad. In 1968, he established ABC's Middle East bureau in Beirut, Lebanon, the first American television news bureau in the Arab world.[11] The next year, he demonstrated his growing expertise in Middle Eastern affairs with Palestine: New State of Mind, a well-received half-hour documentary for ABC's Now news program.[1] As ABC's Beirut bureau chief, Jennings soon became familiar with the intricacies of the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the rise of the Black September Organization in Palestine during the early 1970s. He conducted the first American television interview with PLO chairman Yasser Arafat.[7] While stationed in the Lebanese capital, Jennings dated Palestinian activist Hanan Ashrawi, who was then a graduate student in literature at American University in Beirut.[12]

In 1972, Jennings covered his first major breaking news story, the Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes by Black September. His live reporting, which drew on the expertise he had acquired in the Middle East, provided context for Americans who were unfamiliar with the Palestinian group. By hiding with his camera crew close to the athletic compound where the Israeli athletes were being held hostage, Jennings was able to provide ABC with clear video of the masked hostage-takers.[1]

After the events of Munich, Jennings continued to report on Middle East issues. In 1973, he covered the Yom Kippur War, and the following year, he served as chief correspondent and co-producer of Sadat: Action Biography, a profile of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat that would win him his first of two George Foster Peabody Awards.[1] The documentary established Jennings as Sadat's favorite correspondent.[13] That summer, Jennings married for the second time to Annie Malouf, a Lebanese photographer.[8] His first wife had been childhood sweetheart Valerie Godsoe.[14]

Jennings returned to the US at the end of 1974 to become Washington correspondent and news anchor for ABC's new morning program AM America, a predecessor to Good Morning America.[1] ABC was hoping that the show, in which it had invested US$8 million, would challenge NBC's highly popular Today. AM America debuted on January 6, 1975, with Jennings delivering regular five-minute newscasts from Washington. The show never gained ground against Today, and was canceled in just ten months.[15] In November 1975, Jennings moved abroad once again, this time as ABC's chief foreign correspondent.[1] He continued to cover the Middle East, and in 1978 he was the first American reporter to interview the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran, then in exile in Paris.[13]

Meanwhile, ABC News and its newly installed president, Roone Arledge, were preparing an overhaul of its nightly news program, whose ratings had languished in third place behind CBS and NBC since its inception. In the late 1970s, a disastrous pairing of Harry Reasoner and Barbara Walters at the anchor desk left the network searching for new ideas. Arledge decided to implement a three-anchor format for the program. On July 10, 1978, World News Tonight debuted with Frank Reynolds in Washington, Max Robinson in Chicago, and Jennings in London.[16] Jennings' official title was "Foreign Desk Anchor," although he continued to serve as the network's chief foreign correspondent.[1] By the summer of 1979, the innovative broadcast, which featured some of the same glitzy presentation as Arledge's previous television coup, Wide World of Sports, had climbed in the ratings. The newscast had gained 1.9 million households from its debut, and was now in a dead heat with NBC's evening newscast.[16]

Jennings also found renewed success in his personal life. In 1979, he married for the third time to fellow ABC correspondent Kati Marton. That same year, he became a father after Marton gave birth to their daughter, Elizabeth. In 1982, Jennings' and Marton's second son, Christopher, was born.[14]

As part of ABC's troika, Jennings continued to cover major international news, especially Middle East issues. His nightly appearance at an anchor desk in London also gave rise to the impression that ABC News was more dedicated to foreign news than the other networks.[17] Jennings reported on the Iranian Revolution and subsequent hostage crisis, the assassination of Sadat, the Falklands war, Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and Pope John Paul II's 1983 visit to Poland. His insistence on covering the major international stories himself irked some of his fellow ABC foreign correspondents, who came to resent being scooped by what they deemed as "Jennings' Flying Circus."[1] Jennings, too, was not completely satisfied with his job in London. When his contract expired with ABC in the early 1980s, Jennings flirted with the possibility of moving back to Canada and working with the CBC on its new nightly newscast, The Journal. The CBC could not meet Jennings' renegotiation deadlines though, and the deal fell through.[18]

[edit] Sole anchor

In 1983, Reynolds fell ill with multiple myeloma, a form of bone cancer, and was forced to stop anchoring in April. His absence caused a dip in the ratings for ABC's nightly newscast. ABC originally expected a full recovery, and relocated Jennings to its Washington bureau to fill in for Reynolds while he was sick; the move helped buoy the newscast's ratings, although it remained in third place. On July 20, Reynolds died unexpectedly after developing acute hepatitis.[19]

On August 9, 1983, ABC announced that Jennings had signed a four year contract with the network and would become the sole anchor and senior editor for World News Tonight on September 5. Jennings would anchor the program from New York City, the program's new base of operations.[19] The announcement signaled a generational shift in the evening news broadcasts, and the beginning of what the media would deem as the "Big Three" era of Jennings, Dan Rather of CBS, and Tom Brokaw of NBC.[6] Rather had already been elevated to anchor in 1981 after the retirement of Walter Cronkite, and Brokaw of NBC Nightly News was set to become sole anchor the same day as Jennings. At the time, Jennings expressed apprehension that the impending competition among the three newsmen was at risk of becoming superficial. "With me, Brokaw and Rather, I recognize that there will be the factor of three pretty faces," he said. "That's an inevitable byproduct of television. But if that is what it comes down to in terms of the approach we take, if our approach is that singular, then we will all have made a mistake."[20]

Jennings' debut on September 5, 1983 marked the beginning of a steady climb in the ratings for ABC News. He spent his first year at the anchor desk educating himself on American domestic affairs in preparation for the 1984 presidential campaign season. In June 1984, Jennings, who later admitted that his political knowledge was limited at the time, co-anchored ABC's coverage of the Democratic National Convention with David Brinkley. "I had not covered an election campaign in 16 years," Jennings said , "so here was I going to co-anchor with David Brinkley in 1984, and he wasn't even sure I knew who the faces belonged to, and he was right."[21] Jennings and ABC were criticized for suddenly halting coverage of the convention for half and hour and airing a rerun of Hart to Hart instead.[22] His performance during the 1984 presidential campaign was analyzed in a 1986 study led by Syracuse University professor Brian Mullen. He concluded that Jennings "exhibited a facial expression bias in favor of Reagan".[23] Television critic Tom Shales also noticed a pro-Reagan bias in Jennings' reporting, referring to ABC as "a news organization that is already considered the White House favorite" in May 1985.[24]

By 1989,

- Jennings' debut newscast led with the aftermath of Korean Air Flight 007

would oversee a steady assault on CBS's ratings lead during the 1980s.

June 14, 1984 - ABC News Closeup: War and Power -- The Rise of Syria

June 17, 1984 - ABC News pulls plug on DNC convention (Tom Shales), also Jennings, having been out of the country so long, was rusty on his American politics (Boston Globe Magazine, 1988)

1984 - Anchors Summer Olympics with Jim Mckay

November 21, 1984 - CIA files complaint against ABC News

May 6, 1985 - Shales describes Jennings as most Reagan friendly.

May 13, 1985 U.S. News & World Report releases poll of TV journalists: Jennings lags far behind Rather and Cronkite.

September 1985 - gives speech in Nashville criticizing aspects of TV news.

September 18, 1985 - anchors 45/85

January 1986 - Praised (like Rather/Brokaw) for covering Challenger

May 10, 1986 - Jennings praises ouster of Vernados at CBS

August 1986 - Newcasters' facial expressions and voting behavior of viewers: Can a smile elect a president? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

February 9, 1987 - WPOST reports on declining ratings for network evening news in general

March 26, 1987 - NYTimes reports on "secret" new ABC WNT format developed

July 13, 1987 - Jennings and Kati Marton separate (but no divorce yet)

09/22/1987 - Airs first Capital to Capital program. Live broadcast forum from Washington, DC and Moscow with Representative Les Aspin, Representative Trent Lott, Senator Sam Nunn and several Soviet officials re: US-USSR relations.

July 11, 1988 - Drugs, why this plague

1988 - Part of a panel of journalists for the first Bush/Dukakis debate. Praised for his pointed questions to both candidates (TOP OF THE NEWS WHY PETER JENNINGS IS SO GOOD, Boston Globe)

February 28, 1989 - Jennings anchors first of a series of AIDS Quarterly on PBS

July 25, 1989 - Jennings apologizes for fake footage aired on last friday's WNT broadcast that wasn't marked as fake.

October 17, 1989 - S.F. Earthquake. Jennings/ABC coverage bests others due to coverage of world series. Tom Brokaw fails to adequately cover earthquake in early moments.

November 9, 1989 - Berlin Wall falls...NBC's Tom Brokaw beats Jennings/Rather to the scene for an hour...emphasize ultra-competitiveness here

November 29, 1989 - NYTimes reports that WNT is now number 1 for 8 straight weeks

December 14, 1989 - USAToday reports that WNT is now number 1 in the ratings for 10 straight weeks.

October 28, 1990 - Kati Marton comments in Boston Globe about marriage troubles

November 1, 1990 - Jennings reports on Abortion for "The New Civil War" and Nightline

TODO: Find out about when he attended other schools (Carleton), e.g.

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 ABC's Millennium Eve special ABC 2000, also known as ABC 2000 Today, which Jennings anchored.


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 (NBC) and Dan Rather (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.

Jennings was a frequent target of charges of "liberal bias" by certain conservative groups, such as the Media Research Center (see [1]). He was criticized for being biased in favor of Proposals for a Palestinian state due to his personal romantic relationship with Hanan Ashrawi,[citation needed] a one-time spokeswoman for the Palestine Liberation Organization, by many conservatives and some Jews. By contrast, a study performed by psychologists at Syracuse University in 1984 and repeated in 1988 found in Jennings' newscasts "a significant and noticeable bias in facial expression" toward Republican candidates.[25]

Jennings' supporters contended that most critical reports of him consisted of inaccuracies or out-of-context quotes. Nonetheless, due to Jennings's perceived Liberal leanings and Canadian origins, George W. Bush was the first President in recent memory who did not sit down for an interview with Jennings.

During his career, Jennings had reported from every major world capital and war zone, and from all 50 U.S. states during their 2004 "Fifty States in Fifty Weeks" tour of World News Tonight. 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.

[edit] Ratings

Tom Brokaw and his NBC Nightly News was ranked #1, Peter Jennings and World News Tonight was second, Dan Rather and the CBS Evening News was third. Rather was #1 in the early and mid 1980s, Jennings was #1 in 1989-1997, and Brokaw took over as America's most watched anchor in 1997 and the NBC Nightly News, today under anchor Brian Williams, still remains the top evening newscast to this day.

[edit] Leaving the chair

Many viewers took notice when Jennings was absent at several major news events; most notably, his absence from Asia during the aftermath of the tsunami as well as his absence from Rome, Italy during the illness and death of Pope John Paul II. Future World News Tonight co-anchor Bob Woodruff traveled to the tsunami zone along with Diane Sawyer. Woodruff also anchored both ABC's live coverage of the Pope's death and the World News Tonight Saturday broadcast on the Pope's death instead of Peter. Charles Gibson was later sent to Rome to cover the Pope's funeral.

On April 1, 2005, Jennings anchored World News Tonight for the last time. Jennings had been out of the anchor chair for much of the week, and didn't sound that well. Four days later, on April 5, 2005, Jennings informed viewers through a taped message (with a distorted voice that sounded worse than when he anchored on April 1) that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, and was starting chemotherapy treatment the following week.

(According to his sister Sarah, Jennings reportedly started smoking when he was 11 years old but quit in 1988, then briefly resumed following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.)

Though he said he would continue to host World News Tonight whenever possible, April 5 would prove to be his final broadcast. ABC News' Charlie Gibson, co-host of the network's Good Morning America program, and Elizabeth Vargas, co-host of the network's 20/20, served as temporary anchors until his death from lung cancer.

Charles Gibson announced Peter Jennings' death at 11:41 p.m. (Eastern Time) on August 7, 2005, with an ABC News special report that included the reading of his life story. Jennings was 67 years old. Barbara Walters gave her comments during this, as did fellow ABC anchors Diane Sawyer and Ted Koppel.

Later on during the day, former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and former CBS News anchor Dan Rather spoke fondly of him. In the days that followed ABC would run a number of memoriam showings saying, "The American Broadcasting Company and ABC News mourn the passing of Peter Jennings, Anchor, Reporter, Leader, Friend."

ABC News followed up their special report on August 10, 2005 with a two-hour special entitled "Peter Jennings: Reporter" consisting of interviews with colleagues and friends and clips from his reports.

The special was hosted by Charles Gibson, who ended it standing in front of Jennings' empty anchor chair, giving way to a trumpeter, playing the ABC News division's theme music in the manner of a military bugler playing Taps; he did not play the final phrase, leaving the piece unresolved.

The Jennings family held a private service in Manhattan in which the anchor's cremated remains were split in half. Half of his ashes will be in his home in Long Island and the other half in his summer home in Gatineau Hills, near Ottawa. Married four times, he was survived by his wife, television producer Kayce Freed, and two children, Elizabeth and Christopher (who were from his third marriage, to Kati Marton). He had also been married to Valerie Godsoe, followed by Annie Malouf.

On September 18, 2005, Peter Jennings was later remembered at the 57th Emmy Awards in Los Angeles in a special memoriam tribute with TV anchors Brokaw and Rather as the speakers. Brokaw and Rather commented that Jennings' heart goes out to the lives lost in Hurricane Katrina (this was the first major news story since the three veteran anchors of the broadcast anchors departed). He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at his farm in Quebec, Canada.

[edit] Citizenship

Jennings was a dual citizen of Canada and the United States, having become an American citizen on May 30, 2003. He was said to have been very proud of scoring 100 of 100 on the U.S. citizenship exam.

Even though Jennings became a dual citizen, he was still a proud Canadian, and would often retire in the summer to Wakefield, Quebec, near Ottawa.

He was given the key to the city by former mayor Jim Watson and he received an honorary degree from Carleton University. Jennings donated a sculpture to the city's By Ward Market and was often seen there during the summers.

Jennings' official biography on ABC mentioned nothing of his Canadian origins as that had been the target for much criticism. However, Jennings did cover a number of Canadian events that were largely ignored by other U.S. networks. He often brought up Canadian examples during intense policy debates in Congress, notably bringing up the Canadian Medicare when President Clinton was trying to push through his health care reform plan. Most notable was his coverage of the 1995 Quebec referendum where Jennings went to great lengths to explain why it was important to Americans.

On the night of Jennings's death, Pamela Wallin, the Canadian consul general in New York, shared her thoughts about Jennings and his Canadian roots on CTV Newsnet by telephone from her home in Wadena, Saskatchewan.

In an interview on CBC's The National the evening after Jenning's passing friend and former rival, CBS anchor Dan Rather, noted in a tribute that Jennings' Canadian upbringing allowed him to get a different perspective on events from both inside and outside the US. CBC's broadcast also included thoughts from David Halton, who had just retired as the network's chief Washington correspondent.

That same day, the big three Canadian anchors, Peter Mansbridge at the CBC, Lloyd Robertson at CTV, and former ABC correspondent Kevin Newman at Global gave their thoughts about Jennings and his Canadian roots; Robertson, in an interview on CTV's morning news show, Canada AM, and Newman, on Global National, which opened its broadcast with news of Jennings's death and closed it with Newman's thoughts.

Newman later recalled these thoughts on his blog and in The National Post. ABC anchors Barbara Walters and Ted Koppel also appeared on Canada AM and shared their thoughts about Jennings and his Canadian roots.

Only a few days before his death, Jennings was told he would be receiving the Order of Canada. His family accepted the award on his behalf. Since the Order of Canada cannot be awarded posthumously, the award was dated as of the day the investiture committee approved the nomination, June 29, 2005. (Jennings' daughter Elizabeth Jennings accepted award from Governor General Michaelle Jean in Ottawa on Friday 6 October 2006.)

The memorial service for Peter Jennings, which was held at Carnegie Hall in New York City on September 20, 2005 featured an RCMP honour guard, paying tribute to Jennings' Canadian roots. It was also attended by Robertson, other noted Canadians, and other noted personalities from both sides of the border. The RCMP presented to Jennings' family the flag that flew on Parliament Hill when he died.


"When Ronald Reagan died last year and Brian Mulroney was asked to deliver one of the eulogies, Jennings understood it was unprecedented for a foreign leader to speak at the state funeral of a U.S. president. He led his broadcast that night with a clip of the former Canadian prime minister rather than the other two speakers, both named George Bush.

He kept hiring Canadians as correspondents, producers and writers, to the point where there were mutterings about it at ABC News, particularly in its Washington bureau. Even when he became a U.S. citizen in 2003, he was criticized for taking so long to do it, as well as for retaining his Canadian citizenship. He also retained a cottage in the Gatineau, where he usually spent most of August." FROM L. IAN MACDONALD, MONTREAL GAZETTE

[edit] Honors

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill to designate the corner of West 66th Street and Columbus Avenue as "Peter Jennings Way" in honor of the late ABC News anchor because West 66th Street and Columbus Avenue is also home to ABC News world headquarters.

The new street sign was unveiled on February 21, 2006.

In October 2006, The Walt Disney Company posthumously named Jennings a Disney Legend, the company's highest honor. Jennings was the first ABC News employee to receive the award.

[edit] Awards

An award chosen by the news directors of all three major networks.

[edit] Trivia

  • Jennings was the youngest anchor ever of an American prime time network news program, at 26.
  • Jennings was parodied in Team America: World Police.
  • In 1999, he anchored the 12-hour ABC series, The Century, and ABC's series for the History Channel, America's Time.
  • Jennings once relayed a report from memory after a correspondent's taped report broke during broadcast.
  • Jennings was the only American News Media reporter to broadcast from Montreal during the 1995 Quebec referendum (which ended in a "No" vote).
  • Jennings was a certified private pilot.
  • Jennings logged 25 hours on air for the millennial new year, December 31, 1999 – January 1, 2000.
  • Jennings logged more than 60 hours on the air during the week of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, including 16 hours straight on the 11th.
  • Jennings visited the stadium of the Portland Sea Dogs minor league baseball team in 1996. He stayed there for a week and took batting practice several times with the Sea Dogs, wearing a full Sea Dogs uniform (see [3]).
  • Jennings left an estate of over $50,000,000 (USD), the bulk of which went to his wife Kayce and his children.
  • Jennings was the son-in-law of the famous Hungarian correspondent and political prisoner Ilona Neumann Marton.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Martin, Sandra (August 9, 2005). ABC's Canadian newscaster brought the world's biggest stories into the homes of millions of Americans. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved on November 27, 2006.
  2. ^ a b Lalli, Frank (October 2002). Peter Jennings: Newsman on the Heartland. Reader's Digest. Retrieved on November 27, 2006.
  3. ^ Orpheus Musical Theatre Society. Where are they now?. Retrieved on November 27, 2006.
  4. ^ CBC News Online. Peter Jennings: A life on camera. CBC News. Retrieved on November 27, 2006.
  5. ^ Ward, Bruce (August 9, 2005). Canadian's wit, insight and authority made him Americans' 'centre of gravity'. The Ottawa Citizen through LexisNexis® Academic. Retrieved on November 27, 2006.
  6. ^ a b c Steinberg, Jacques (August 8, 2005). Peter Jennings, Urbane News Anchor, Dies at 67. The New York Times. Retrieved on November 27, 2006.
  7. ^ a b c d Sullivan, Patricia (August 8, 2005). ABC News Anchor Was a Voice of the World. The Washington Post. Retrieved on November 27, 2006.
  8. ^ a b Glass, Charles (August 9, 2005). Peter Jennings. The Independent. Retrieved on November 30, 2006.
  9. ^ Dawidziak, Mark (August 9, 2005). Anchor’s stellar career came against the odds. The Cleveland Plain Dealer through LexisNexis® Academic. Retrieved on November 30, 2006.
  10. ^ CTV.ca News Staff (August 8, 2005). Jennings remembered as 'the best of the breed'. CTV. Retrieved on November 30, 2006.
  11. ^ Peter Jennings. ABC News. Retrieved on November 30, 2006.
  12. ^ Fenyvesi, Charles (December 30, 1991 / January 6, 1992). Washington whispers. US News & World Report through LexisNexis® Academic. Retrieved on November 30, 2006.
  13. ^ a b Waite, Clayland. Jennings, Peter. The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved on December 1, 2006.
  14. ^ a b USA Today (August 8, 2005). Jennings' time, and ours. USA Today. Retrieved on December 1, 2006.
  15. ^ Waters, Harry F. (November 17, 1975). If at First.... Newsweek through LexisNexis® Academic. Retrieved on December 1, 2006.
  16. ^ a b Waters, Harry F. with Betsy Carter (August 20, 1979). ABC News Marches On. Newsweek through LexisNexis® Academic. Retrieved on December 1, 2006.
  17. ^ Schwartz, Tony (December 12, 1981). Arledge Fights, Yet Revels in, his Outsider Status. The New York Times through LexisNexis® Academic. Retrieved on December 4, 2006.
  18. ^ Riches, Hester (June 17, 1981). CBC blew its chance to net Peter Jennings. The Globe and Mail through LexisNexis® Academic. Retrieved on December 4, 2006.
  19. ^ a b Carmody, John (August 10, 1983). Jennings to Solo for ABC News. The Washington Post through LexisNexis® Academic. Retrieved on December 4, 2006.
  20. ^ Smith, Sally Bedell (August 10, 1983). Peter Jennings Named Sole ABC Anchor. The New York Times. Retrieved on December 4, 2006.
  21. ^ Kenney, Charles(November 6, 1988). Why Peter Jennings is So Good. The Boston Globe through LexisNexis® Academic. Retrieved on December 7, 2006.
  22. ^ Shales, Tom (July 18, 1984). The Gift & the Gaffe; Jackson Inspires; ABC News Pulls Its Own Plug. The Washington Post through LexisNexis® Academic. Retrieved on December 7, 2006.
  23. ^ Mullen, Brian et al (August 1986). "Newscasters' facial expressions and voting behavior of viewers: Can a smile elect a President?". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 51 (2), 291–95.
  24. ^ Shales, Tom (May 6, 1985). On the Air; Anchor Away; TV's Big Morning Without Dan Rather. The Washington Post through LexisNexis® Academic. Retrieved on December 8, 2006.
  25. ^ Brian Mullen et al, "Newscasters' facial expressions and voting behavior of viewers: Can a smile elect a President?" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (August 1986): 291-95.

[edit] External links


Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Preceded by
Ron Cochran		 Peter Jennings with the News / ABC Evening News (ABC World News Tonight) anchor
1965 – 1967		 Succeeded by
Bob Young
Preceded by
Frank Reynolds, Max Robinson, and Peter Jennings		 ABC World News Tonight anchor
August 9, 1983-August 7, 2005
(remained credited anchor until August 15, 2005)
(last appearance on April 5, 2005)
(last full anchored broadcast on April 1, 2005)		 Succeeded by
Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff
January 3, 2006 -May 26,2006
interim anchors along with Charles Gibson from August 8, 2005 until officially appointed. [4]
Preceded by
None		 CTV National News anchor
with coanchors Baden Langton, Charles Lynch, Peter Stursberg, Ab Douglas, Larry Henderson and Harvey Kirck
1961 – 1964		 Succeeded by
Harvey Kirck
1965 - 1984


Anchors of ABC Evening News/World News Tonight/World News
Daly • Young • Reynolds • Smith • Reasoner • Walters • Robinson • Jennings • Woodruff/Vargas • Gibson
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../g/z/k/User%7EGzkn_Sandbox_Peter_Jennings_71f6.html"