Posted on 09/04/2005 4:49:33 PM PDT by ElCapusto
The word went out on August 8th that Peter Jennings, an icon of American mainstream media, had died at the age of 67. In this day and age, 67 is well below the average life span in America, and it is unfortunate that the ABC News anchor died prematurely due to lung cancer.
Often when someone dies, the initial commentary is rather flattering, as people with the smallest amount of good taste will not speak ill of the dead, especially before they’ve been put in the ground. There was plenty of news coverage of Jennings death, and there were a lot of kind words said about the man. I have no doubt that some of those kind words are true. Of course some of the grander statements made about Jennings were made by his friends in the old media, so their views and statements tended to be a little biased (as are most of their views and statements when reporting the news).
But now that some time has passed, we can take a more sober, less emotional look at the long-time anchor for ABC News. Jennings’ accomplishments as an establishment mainstream media ‘newsman’ are clear and unquestionable. He rose to the pinnacle of his profession and stayed there for literally decades.
But let’s face it; the term ‘talking head’ didn’t come about as a mere joke. By his own admission, Jennings was grossly under educated, dropping out of high school, thus hardly making him qualified to critique people, whether they be public or private individuals, offer analysis or pass judgment on our society, our form of government or the views and moods of Americans. Yes, yes, yes, he had his First Amendment right to free speech, but to pass himself off as an authority figure by sitting in that chair in front of the camera every evening was practically fraudulent. Not to place too much emphasis on formal education (which can be over rated considering today’s educational institutions), but for Peter Jennings to think his education of ‘life experiences’ made him better qualified to pass judgment on people and events, which he did, is plain arrogance. He was a pretender. Jennings was typical of the current mainstream media elites. He was removed from true mainstream America, going around in his own circle of leftists who hadn’t a clue as to what was really the views of the average American, and not really caring, as he was all about attempting to tell us what to think and how to interpret events.
In an interview once with the Star Tribune in Minneapolis, Jennings was quoted as saying, "When it's clearly an emotional experience for the audience, the anchor should not add his or her emotional layers." Seeing this quote, what comes to mind is how Jennings conducted himself during the returns of the 1994 mid-term elections, when the Republicans took over the House of Representatives. Jennings was on the verge of having a literal fit. He declared the American public had gone out and voted, acting like ‘children having a temper tantrum.’ In fact, it was Jennings who was having the temper tantrum, as again he was totally out of touch with the average person, and so engrossed in his socialistic ideology that he was caught flat-footed at the turn of events for Democrats. He never saw it coming, didn’t like the outcome in the least, and his comments and emotions on TV showed it.
Peter Jennings once told author Jeff Alan, " I subscribe to leaving people with essentially a rough draft of history. Some days it's reassuring, some days it's absolutely destructive." Of course, this ‘rough draft of history’ was colored by Jennings’ interpretations of events. I can remember when I was no longer seduced by Jennings’ smooth, genteel manner of delivery. I started to listen not only to what Jennings was saying, but how he was saying it. The combination of his phraseology and voice inflection could twist the facts, making truth sound like a lie, and myth sound like the truth. I soon realized that if I wanted the news and not propaganda, I’d have to go somewhere else. I paid little to no attention to Peter Jennings after about 1989.
In his position as the anchor for a national news program, Jennings often filtered what news was given to him, deciding what was news worthy and what wasn’t, always leaning to the far left. It is ironic that Peter Jennings had such an impact on how the news was delivered in America since he was a Canadian. Growing up in a society far more in line with socialist Europe than traditionally liberty-oriented, conservative America, Jennings brought his good looks and slick-talking ways to the American airways, fitting in with the left-leaning elitists that dominate mass communication outlets in our country.
Jennings was committed to his career and his ideology, but like most leftists, he didn’t let his socialist ideology stop him from making millions in our capitalistic society as the lead newsman for ABC, and it wasn’t until 2003 that he finally decided for dual citizenship. Yes, we basically had a foreigner on our airwaves, attempting to tell us what to think, how to interpret the news, and what was right and wrong for us.
While Jennings’ condescending approach to delivering the news was offensive, I don’t think it was as offensive as his various ‘specials’ he did on ABC, especially in the last 5-6 years. Jennings took it upon himself, an uneducated foreigner, to conduct a ‘search for America,’ as if he could actually tell Americans who we are and what we are about. In addition, he led the ‘documentary’ ‘The Search for Jesus,’ a grossly misinformed presentation of distortions and half-truths. It didn’t qualify for the description ‘documentary,’ but should have been labeled ‘atheistic propaganda.’
I will say that there was one truly great feat that Peter Jennings had a part in, and is worth remembering him for if nothing else. He helped steer the mainstream media, and specifically the traditional ‘big three’ evening news shows, into irrelevancy. Instead of responding to the public’s disapproval of his approach to delivering biased information, Jennings, along with Rather and Brokaw, kept pounding his ship into the icebergs of leftist ideology, being the sounding board for Democrats and their host of whacked out liberal special interest groups. By refusing to correct his course and present honest, unbiased news, Jennings helped propel cable news and the internet to prominence. In the end, Jennings had a big hand in de-legitimizing the traditional evening news. If we must remember Peter Jennings, let’s remember him for that.
And that, to those of us who occasionally watched, was glaringly obvious.
Jennings is dead. The MSM is dead. They're all going out together, all at once, like the tide, or more correctly like a bunch of hot air escaping the burst balloon.
A respectful period has passed. I guess it's okay to tell it like it is.
I will never forget the disrespect that Jennings showed President Bush in the first hour of 9-11. It was not Jennings "Finest Hour".
Never watched any of those bastards, I knew they were mostly fools when I was a child.
I doubt any will be missed in this house.
While Jennings may have played a large role in the death of the MSM, I believe that honor (?) should go to none other than Dan Rather and CBS News. With the attempt to pass off fraudulent documentation as the real thing in order to torpedo the reelection of a sitting president, the MSM sunk to an all time low.
You are absolutely right to point out Rather / CBS. That was when the levee broke.
MSM and the far left always manage to take the position or actions that most undermines the President. They are taking his talking points straight out of al-Qaeda training manual and are helping al-Qaeda.
Main Stream Media would have to be FOX! I do not watch CNN,ABC,NBC (except for football)and I can't get fox. What is a media poor person to do but FR!
The totally insanity of the MSM tv outlets and printed mediots have had during the Katrina coverage is costing them big time. They lost the Cindy Sheehan war and are losing the Katrina war with GW and those who support GW.
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DAVID SHAW, 62, Dead. LIBERAL Los Angeles Times Media Critic
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1455410/posts
DAVID SHAW: RATHER's work 'Shoddy, Slipshod' not LIBERAL..?
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1227809/posts
.
That stone is awesome! MSM, RIP.
What I saw on the CBS morning show was surreal today. On the one hand I was in total shock at what they were letting people say on the air about Bush and racism etc. On the other hand I was rejoicing at the crack up. They are destroying themselves.
Thanks. Meekonegop and another freeper did the basic work on the stone with a couple of suggestions for me.
I love to send a copy to the boards and heads of ABCNNBCBS when they screwup or try to push a Dan Blather as the truth.
Below is another example of how the Pseudo news agencies of America are incapable of ever getting anything correct.
Earlier we had horrible news that 6 contractors were killed and 2 others by thugs.
That was totally wrong. Apparently the police killed thugs who were shooting at the contractors. Finally AP had to kill their first story:
To: lightman
AP Kills Katrina Shootings Story
Sep 04, 2005 (AP Online) -- EDITORS:
Two versions of BC-Katrina-Shootings-HK1, V3170 and V3182, have been killed. The Army Corps of Engineers says the contractors were shot at, then police shot fatally the gunmen who fired on the contractors. The contractors were not killed, the Army Corps said.
A kill is mandatory.
Make certain the story is not used.
A sub was filed as V3187. All subsequent versions may be published.
The AP
Copyright 2005 Associated Press, All rights reserved
Post time: 18:24 ET.
7 posted on 09/04/2005 5:20:52 PM PDT by seamole (Non occides.)
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Peter Jennings at his worst could be seen when he was editorializing how poor and cowardly George Bush was a President when he was expaining the immediate aftermath to the attacks on 9/11. I heard him a couple times on various radio shows...as a special reporter. He attacked Bush as breaking news. Great Caesars Ghost, what a worthless human being that guy was!
I believe Jennings dropped out of college, not high school. If this fact was supposed to put some kind of restriction on his ability to interpret big events as the post suggests, well then that same logic can be applied to another man who dropped out of college in his freshman year, Bill Gates, and we might assume he has no prehensile ability to analyze other people's software, right?
Don't get me wrong here. I found Jennings' requisite big-media left-wing politics just as abhorrent as most others in this forum. It's just that assumptions of formal education making the man are wrong. I spent several years in Silicon Valley where I met many millionaires who never set foot in a college classroom (unless they were invited to lecture).
Jennings was a Canadian, like Jim Carry. Carry dropped out of school in the 9th grade so he could work Toronto-area comedy clubs 6 nights a week and support his mother and siblings. That's a huge responsibility for a 15 year-old. Now he's the world's top comic and amongst the half dozen highest-paid actors on the planet. His influence in Hollywood is enormous. Not bad for a kid who never finished junior high school.
Jennings reeked with class. That's why people loved him. He knew how to CONNECT with his audience like few others ever will. Carry has that same rare gift. No college diploma can buy you that.
He dated Hanan Ashrawi, that might explains his bias against Israel.
Great article. No bovine scatology here!!
The MSM is not dead in my little community. They are buying everything they are telling them and are all blaming the President for the suffering in NO. Nope, only dead to those of us who freep.
"Never watched any of those bastards, I knew they were mostly fools when I was a child. "
"I doubt any will be missed in this house."
Same here - stopped listening to those hacks when they ruined thsi country during Nam
Jennings dropped out of the 10th grade -- not college. This Leftwing ignoramus, who formed his opinions about the Middle East by bedroom talk with his Palestinian girlfriends (Hanan Ashwari was one), is not fit to look down upon the American people for voting sensibly in 1994!
Jennings had talent and ambition, let there be no doubt about that, and he rose to the top of his profession. That is, if newsreading can be considered a profession. Paid pretty well though. And most of America bought the dog and pony show.
My boss at the time, had his little TV on in his office, and I went into a profane rant about Jennings....the boss didn't appreciate it. I left six months or so later. No loss.
See my 28 below...
You're wrong ... he left H.S. in Canada in the 10th grade. His obituary states he was always tremendously sensitive to the fact he didn't have a formal education ... however, his father was a well known Canadian journalist ... and with his connections Peter learned his trade. Peter Jennings stated his reason for not completing H.S. was the fact he was 'bone lazy' when it came to academics. As a former Canadian, now U.S. citizen, I can attest to the fact H.S. in Canada was a whole lot more of a challenge than college.
Spot on about Jennings' view of U.S. citizenship. A decade earlier Peetah declared that his decent, liberal, compassionate, openminded Canadian values were at such odds with those of `Fascist Amerika' that he would never, ever, entertain the notion of becoming an American citizen no matter long he might live here.
But the most amusing Jennings vignette is how he was the bane of every Washington, D.C. headwaiter. If the menu featured mesquite grilled chicken, Peetah would demand of the wait staff: Is the chicken free-range? Did the mesquite come from Federal lands? Are you aware of the carcinogenic hazards of open-flame grilling? And on and on. He was once known to D.C. restaurantiers simply as The Jerk.
Tell Jennings' hagiographers it's time for a little revisionism.
This is simply wrong. Formal education does not a thinker or leader make. It is wrong applied to conservatives, so it's wrong applied to liberals.
If I remember correctly, Abe Lincoln had formal education of less than elementary school.
Self-education for those who truly work at it is as effective as any other kind of education. I'm no great fan of Peter Jennings, in fact, I despise the ideology he espoused on the Ethics in America tapes with Mike Wallace, but it strikes me that Jennings was a knowledgeable, insightful man.
They lost the Cindy Sheehan war and are losing the Katrina war with GW and those who support GW
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I hope you are right, not dreaming.
They lost the Cindy Sheehan war and are losing the Katrina war with GW and those who support GW
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I hope you are right, not dreaming.
Please add the Phila Inquirer to that grave marker.
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003197.htm
http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/petJer.htm
Cut & Paste. I don't know how to do active links.
Please add the Phila Inquirer to that grave marker.
"As a former Canadian, now U.S. citizen, I can attest to the fact H.S. in Canada was a whole lot more of a challenge than college."
I'm an American whose father was a Texaco executive transfered to Calgary when I was 12 years-old. We stayed in Canada for 4 years. I took calculus there in the 9th grade. You can graduate from Harvard or Yale in this country without ever having taken calculus in your entire life.
..."to those of us who occasionally watched..." - I watched Peter Jennings ONCE and that was it. I have no use for liberals - media or otherwise. I simply do not understand them.
If the MSM is dead how come Bush didn't win in a landslide in 2004
THey still have a hell of a lot of influence mainly by what they DON'T report
ok, I'm over it.. when is the next episode of "Laguna Beach" on?
...nice try... but like most liberals you have a little problem with something called the 'facts'. He was a high school drop out. The problem isn't that he didn't graduate high school but that his feces filled cranium couldn't process facts...like most other libs....
bwahahahaha not to worry... it doesn't matter, most people didn't care about his newscasts, he's dead and he's just a left wing reader of the teleprompter with good hair, nice voice and left wing ideology. Nothing special, just a little propagandist for the left... nothing more...nothing less.
He's sorely missed by........ one of his wives I guess and his kids.
I believe the levee broke here on FreeRepublic. "Buckhead" did it. Thank God for our military, President Bus and FreeRepublic!
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Did you ever watch Peter Jerkings try to discuss something without a teleprompter to tell him what to say? That was entertainment.
At least Jennings was slick when doing his pre-scripted propaganda. He didn't make your skin crawl like Edward R. Murrow did.
Nice to see an honest assessment of Jennings for a change.
He had been sugarcoated so many times since his death, I had become nauseated.
Thanks.
Jennings was a Canadian, like Jim Carry [sic].
Unlike the talented Jim Carey, Jennings had no talents whatsoever. He had a handsome visage and an affected, pompous speaking voice. That's it. The execs at ABC knew that large swaths of American rubes associate those attributes with "reeking of class." Hence, Jennings' long and totally undistinguished career on TV, talking down to the masses who confuse condescension with "connecting."
I just love that tombstone! Can I borrow it?! Also can you add Hollywood to the list in there somewhere?
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