New Blog and Newsletter: 8/8/05 -- Peter Jennings

[Patsy Stone]

I'm with Carey on this one. RIP Peter.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/ Blog

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Tonight on Countdown
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"The calm, seasoned, assuring voice has been stilled. We may remember him for his work on 9/11, or for any of a dozen other crises, from Vietnam to the Munich Olympics to the Challenger disaster. But the real story of Peter Jennings is not to be found in a kaleidoscope of unconnected moments of history."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8514671/#050808a

Keith plans on devoting much of tonight's newscast to this extraordinary newsman.
This is a must-see Countdown...
Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.

For now, here's links to MSNBC's great coverage.
ABC News anchor Peter Jennings dies at 67. Canadian-born broadcaster announced he had lung cancer in April. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8864210/

A reliable voice through changing times. Peter Jennings was a benchmark as the role of news anchors shifted. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8870013/

Also on tonight's Countdown:
NASA extended the first space shuttle mission in two and a half years by one more day on Monday, postponing a planned landing because of unfavorable weather conditions at the Florida landing site. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8839616/

Russia today celebrated the rescue of a small submarine and its seven crew members who had been trapped for three days more than 600 feet below the Pacific Ocean, but the happy ending was tinged by embarrassment and recriminations over the state of the country's military. An unmanned British submersible - accompanied on the surface by American Navy divers and a doctor - managed this afternoon to cut the submarine free from fishing nets and cables that had ensnared it 76 hours earlier. The operation was a five-hour race against time, as the Russians aboard huddled in darkness and cold, with their supply of oxygen dwindling ominously. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/international/europe/07cnd-submarine.html?hp

Rita Cosby's interview with two Jackson jurors -- highlights.
That's some of what we're planning for tonight's show.

Finally,
I wouldn't feel right unless I conveyed that Peter Jennings was always my favorite. Brokaw and Rather have their own talents and their own charm, but it was Jennings who I watched over the years.
I, like many people, tuned to the ABC newscast less as I grew older, with the advent of cable news.
But I loved going to Jennings for the big stories, and he was my touchstone during 9/11... when I had gone back to school for a graduate degree in journalism after realizing that certain other careers were not for me.
That was a time when I was both a hungry consumer of the news and, in a way, a new journalist myself -- we did scores of reports on 9/11 and related stories for all of my classes at NYU. These were stories that wound up on our little NYU TV station or the school newspaper, but we took them very seriously, as students do.
But living in New York on that day, just as a person in this world, was indescribable. But I will nevertheless describe part of it, by telling you I felt unmoored, scared, emboldened, hungry for genuine contact with others, and desperate for some kind of reassurance.
Jennings presence, on air, was reassuring, but never falsely so.
His competence was obvious, and deep, his compassion clear, but never maudlin...
I also distinctly remember watching Frank Reynolds, Jennings predecessor, who died of a different variety of cancer and who I liked almost as much as Jennings.
Both men were calming influences on air.
And my reaction to their deaths (Reynolds died in 1983, when I was in college) was similar -- What a career, what a life, but why did it have to be cut short.
These days in particular, when someone dies at 67, their life is cut short. A dozen productive years, easily, lay ahead of Peter Jennings if cancer were not part of his story.
And a full life, of career and family and friends, though not necessarily in that order, is what all of us want, really.
So Jennings had it, but we're sorry he didn't get more of it.
We would never have begrudged him this.
He was the best of his generation.
His coverage of the millennium -- 24 hours worth -- showed off his lighter side. I'm glad I got to see that.
I'm lucky to have seen a lot of it all.
But, selfishly, I wish I could have seen... much more.

-- Carey Fox

Countdown Home: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

Keith blogs: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

More:
MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[gkhouston]

1. I'm glad they're giving him a good send-off

he certainly deserves one. I was afraid he didn't have much time back when he announced his illness, since he had so little air for speaking, but I was hoping to be proved wrong about that.

Not a good night for Cosby to debut, IMHO. I wasn't really interested in her program in the first place, but I'm sure as hell not going to be in the mood for Jackson jury tidbits ad nauseum after listening to a program about something that actually matters.

[Patsy Stone]

2. Correct.

I, too, hoped he would have had more time.

For Peter:



A class act. :loveya:

[Muffstser]

3. Great writing by Carey Fox

It's interesting to hear more about his background. His eloquence is terrific.

I agree...I won't be watching Rita tonight. I'll be tuned in to Larry King. I think he's got Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw scheduled.

[Berry Cool]

4. What a great piece of work!

Kudos to Carey. He did a great job on his own.

I am looking forward to Keith's show tonight...even though I'm pretty much a puddle just from watching the ABC news.