Peter Jennings, RIP
The first thing to greet me Monday morning when I glanced at the copy of the USA Today that had been slid under my hotel room door was the headline that Peter Jennings had passed away at the age of 67. It surprised me - I knew he had announced a few months ago that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and would be undergoing treatment for it, but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. And, it saddened me more than I thought it might, though I'd stopped watching him years ago.
Peter Jennings was part of the standard evening routine for me and my wife for many years, especially during the 1980s. Suave, articulate, urbane, smooth – he seemed at that time to exude a greater degree of balance and trustworthiness than his contemporaries at the other networks.
As time went on, like many Americans we drifted away from the evening news broadcasts – lives got busier, schedules didn’t sync with the evening news broadcast times, more media venues emerged, and so on. And – it seemed that the packaging and the “twist” on the network news didn’t seem as, well, objective. The final straw came after the 1994 elections, when Peter, in what struck me as a bit of a temper tantrum, portrayed the nationwide rejection of Democratic party congressional and Senatorial candidates and the transfer of control of both houses of Congress to the Republicans as a "temper tantrum” by voters acting like "an angy two-year old". That "analysis" (and others like it) did two things as far as I was concerned: 1) it told us clearly where his sympathies were, and 2), it severely undercut the regard we had had up to that point for his journalistic objectivity.
The network evening broadcasts now seem to be – to many of us, at least - an anachronism. Self-appointed media “gatekeepers” attempt to take the vast swath of newsworthy events each day and whittle them down to 22 minutes of news snippets and not-so-objective analysis that can’t even begin to get into the depth and the multitude of permutations and viewpoints that involve the serious issues of the day – and that’s before the obligatory “infotainment” pieces that get interspersed into many of the broadcasts as well. Add in to the mix the body-blow to major news network credibility triggered and exemplified by CBS and Dan Rather’s debacle regarding the TANG memos last September, along with the rise of 24-hour cable news channels, the internet, talk radio, and the blogosphere, and it’s clear that the iconic national news network evening broadcasters will never again be what they once were, or come close to the level of influence and importance they once had. Jennings’ passing coincides with the unmistakable decline in the institution he will forever be associated with.
His political leanings undoubtedly differed from mine. But in the end – in what truly matters - Mr. Jennings was a decent and compassionate human being, and a man of notable achievement who lived a good life and exemplified much in his personal conduct, demeanor, and dedication to his profession that is admirable and noteworthy. God rest his soul and bless his family and his memory.
Peter Jennings was part of the standard evening routine for me and my wife for many years, especially during the 1980s. Suave, articulate, urbane, smooth – he seemed at that time to exude a greater degree of balance and trustworthiness than his contemporaries at the other networks.
As time went on, like many Americans we drifted away from the evening news broadcasts – lives got busier, schedules didn’t sync with the evening news broadcast times, more media venues emerged, and so on. And – it seemed that the packaging and the “twist” on the network news didn’t seem as, well, objective. The final straw came after the 1994 elections, when Peter, in what struck me as a bit of a temper tantrum, portrayed the nationwide rejection of Democratic party congressional and Senatorial candidates and the transfer of control of both houses of Congress to the Republicans as a "temper tantrum” by voters acting like "an angy two-year old". That "analysis" (and others like it) did two things as far as I was concerned: 1) it told us clearly where his sympathies were, and 2), it severely undercut the regard we had had up to that point for his journalistic objectivity.
The network evening broadcasts now seem to be – to many of us, at least - an anachronism. Self-appointed media “gatekeepers” attempt to take the vast swath of newsworthy events each day and whittle them down to 22 minutes of news snippets and not-so-objective analysis that can’t even begin to get into the depth and the multitude of permutations and viewpoints that involve the serious issues of the day – and that’s before the obligatory “infotainment” pieces that get interspersed into many of the broadcasts as well. Add in to the mix the body-blow to major news network credibility triggered and exemplified by CBS and Dan Rather’s debacle regarding the TANG memos last September, along with the rise of 24-hour cable news channels, the internet, talk radio, and the blogosphere, and it’s clear that the iconic national news network evening broadcasters will never again be what they once were, or come close to the level of influence and importance they once had. Jennings’ passing coincides with the unmistakable decline in the institution he will forever be associated with.
His political leanings undoubtedly differed from mine. But in the end – in what truly matters - Mr. Jennings was a decent and compassionate human being, and a man of notable achievement who lived a good life and exemplified much in his personal conduct, demeanor, and dedication to his profession that is admirable and noteworthy. God rest his soul and bless his family and his memory.
posted by Wascally Wabbit at 5:06 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home