Biography
Canadian-American award-winning news journalist, reporter and respected anchorman
for ABC's "World News Tonight," Jennings co-authored "The Century" (1998) and "In
Search of America" (2002). On December 31, 1999, for 25 hours he anchored a telecast
of millennium celebrations around the world earning ABC News a Peabody Award. He won
the coveted Edward R. Murrow award for his documentary on the Kennedy assassination,
16 Emmy awards, several Overseas Press Club awards, a Lifetime Achievement award and
many others.
From an early age, Jennings was attracted to broadcasting. He credits his dad, a
radio announcer and later executive for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with
his ability to observe attentively and describe lucidly what he had witnessed. Young
Peter was behind the microphone by the age of ten on a kid's radio show. A curious
if unsuccessful student, he left prep school in favor of radio. He relates that he
spent a year "broadcasting to the Eskimos" during one of his first jobs in Canadian
radio. From 1961-64, he was parliamentary correspondent and anchorman for Canadian
TV.
Tall, handsome and gracious, he got his big break as host of the ABC Evening News
on August 3, 1964 at age 26. After three years, he quit, as audiences simply did not
accept the voice of authority from a young man who looked as if he were not much
older than a teenager. From 1968 to 1975, Jennings learned his trade from the ground
up amidst the turbulence of the times. In 1968, he opened the first American
television news bureau in the Arab world. For the next several years he served as
bureau chief in Lebanon. From this vantage point he was able to gain a first-hand
understanding of foreign affairs while he covered major news stories such as the
horrifying events at the Munich Olympics in 1972. In 1975 he moved to Washington, DC
and took over as news anchor of ABC's morning program, "A.M. America." Two years
later, he moved to Rome as Chief Foreign Correspondent for the news channel, moving
on to London shortly afterward. Along with Frank Reynolds and Max Robinson, Jennings
shared the anchor desk of "World News Tonight" for five years beginning in 1978. He
became senior editor and chief anchor of the popular news show in 1983 and shone
there for the next 22 years, until his death in 2005. In 1990, his "Peter Jennings
Reporting" made its debut, a vehicle for Jennings to explore in-depth special topics
such as the life of Jesus, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Kennedy assassination.
With Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw, Jennings was one of the three superstar anchors
for the top network news broadcasts. In each day's work, he reached millions of
Americans with his coverage of domestic and international news and analytical
reports. His reputation as cool and standoffish was not the whole story. The debonair
newsman on occasion turned visibly weepy over heart-tugging stories. Jennings' producers
reportedly had a pre-tape of his sign-offs ready in case Jennings got blubbery at the
end of a newscast. In person, Jennings was an amiable, funny, story-teller, thoughtful
and urbane.
Jennings' name could sometimes be found in the gossip section. He wedded four
times and divorced three, with several relationships reported during and in-between
marriages. After marriages to Valerie Godsoe and the photographer Annie Malouf, he
wed writer Kati Marton in 1979 and they had two children, Elizabeth, born in 1980
and Christopher in 1982. His fourth marriage, to Kayce Freed, occurred on December 6, 1997
in Bridgehampton, NY. Jennings became a U.S. citizen in May 2003. He sometimes commented
on the perspective that his Canadian roots gave him toward U.S. policies and actions.
A heavy chain-smoker for a good part of his life, Jennings finally quit in the 1980s but
said that he had resumed the habit while covering the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
The journalist announced on April 5, 2005 that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. While he
expressed his intention to continue his work as an anchor despite chemotherapy treatments, he
did not return to the anchor desk. The ravages of the disease and the treatment caught up with
him. He died on August 7, 2005 in Manhattan, a little more than a week after his 67th birthday.
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Quotes:
- "He was not warm or cozily familiar. He was cool and even a little supercilious. If you
invited Peter Jennings into your living room, he would be likely to raise an eyebrow at the
stains on the coffee table. He was not America's best friend or kindly uncle. But in an era
of chatty newscasters, jousting analysts and hyperactive commentators, he was a rare voice
of civility." From "Among the Chatty Anchors, a Voice of Civility" by Alessandra Stanley,
New York Times, August 9, 2005.
- "If I knew the name of the person in the parade, he knew the name of the horse. He pushed
himself, he pushed us, he made us better. One of the things that I think was very interesting
about Peter is that he didn't graduate from high school, and this gave him a kind of insecurity
that made him want to work harder, and learn more. He wrote like a dream. You would think that
he was reading a script, and it was all ad-lib. He was an anchor in every true sense of the
word." Barbara Walters as quoted in CNN obituary online dated August 8, 2005 (see link below).
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What Do You Think?
Following the retirement of Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings' recent death was noted, not just as
the passing of an important and popular media figure, but also as a symbol of the shift in the way Americans
get their world news.
Jennings was a good-looking, charming anchor, with first-hand knowledge culled from years of foreign and
domestic reporting, a steady and gracious presence in a turbulent world, a meticulous reporter. He was considered
trustworthy by viewers, a hard worker always in search of understanding and information. Let's look at his chart
for clues about his success as a journalist and broadcaster:
- Where in the chart is the person who quit school early to follow his calling? What in the chart indicates
his choice of career and the success he found in his field?
- What do you make of the Eastern hemisphere emphasis in his chart?
- Jennings was seen by viewers to be a trustworthy newsman, charming, a sensitive reporter of others' tragedies. Beneath
that layer was another: the aloof, hard-working, self-driven chain-smoker. Where are these traits shown in the chart?
View Others' Answers
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