In Memoriam Ad Nauseum
There is no better way to pay tribute to the passing of an icon like Peter Jennings than to let the man's own words constitute his eulogy. So read, and learn...
“I think there is a mainstream media. CNN is mainstream media, and the main, ABC, CBS, NBC are mainstream media. And I think it’s just essentially to make the point that we are largely in the center without particular axes to grind, without ideologies which are represented in our daily coverage, at least certainly not on purpose.”
— On CNN’s Larry King Live, May 15, 2001.
Peter Jennings said on many occasions that he was proud of the absence of bias in his journalism. Read through his own words, then, and be the judge.
There's not a good deal for Iraqis to be happy about at
the moment. Life is still very chaotic, beset by violence in
many cases, huge shortages. In some respects, Iraqis keep
telling us, life is not as stable for them as it was when Saddam
Hussein was in power..
Peter Jennings on December 14, 2003, the day
that Saddam's capture was announced.
Today the government said that America's prison population
grew 2.9 percent last year to nearly 2.1 million. That's
a record number of people in jail and prison. One out of
every 75 American men was incarcerated. The number
went up even though the crime rate continued to fall.
Peter Jennings on the May 27, 2003
“Tonight we have put the best child care system in the world on the American Agenda. That is to say, the system which is acknowledged to be the best outside the home. It’s in Sweden. The Swedish system is run and paid for by the Swedish government, something many Americans would like to see the U.S. government do as well.”
— World News Tonight, November 22, 1989
The civilized solution is to send Elian back to Cuba: “Good evening. In Miami today, immigration officials met with the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez again, and once again the government has failed to get the kind of cooperation from the relatives that might allow the case of this young boy to end in a civilized manner that is best for him.”
— World News Tonight, March 28, 2000.
Spanking voters for electing conservatives: “Some thoughts on those angry voters. Ask parents of any two-year-old and they can tell you about those temper tantrums: the stomping feet, the rolling eyes, the screaming. It’s clear that the anger controls the child and not the other way around. It’s the job of the parent to teach the child to control the anger and channel it in a positive way. Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week....Parenting and governing don’t have to be dirty words: the nation can’t be run by an angry two-year-old.”
— In his daily ABC Radio commentary, November 14, 1994, after Republicans won control of Congress.
Those intolerant Republicans: “We begin tonight with what you could call zero tolerance....Today by the time Mr. Dole spoke by satellite to his party delegates, who were already gathered in San Diego, all notions of tolerance on the subject of abortion had disappeared from the party’s platform.”
— World News Tonight, August 6, 1996.
“The right to abortion has never been an overwhelming issue for women at election time. But this fight within the Republican Party has many women questioning how far this party will go to limit their rights.”
— World News Tonight, August 13, 1996.
Feminism helps us all (except maybe the unborn): “And, so we choose Betty Friedan because she had the ability and the sensitivity to articulate the needs of women, which means that she did us all a favor.”
— World News Tonight’s “Person of the Week,” February 19, 1988.
Marian Wright Edelman loves children: “[She’s] always on Congress’s back for coming up with too little money....From her point of view, as you hear, it is a matter of the whole country’s future. The children are fortunate to have such an advocate.”
— Making the head of the Children’s Defense Fund the “Person of the Week,” World News Tonight, March 29, 1991.
“Medical care was once for the privileged few. Today it is available to every Cuban and it is free. Some of Cuba’s health care is world class. In heart disease, for example, in brain surgery. Health and education are the revolution’s great success stories.”
— World News Tonight, April 3, 1989.
“Finally this evening, part history and part myth. It was 50 years ago this week that the People’s Republic of China came into being, Mao Tse-Tung its founding father. China’s going all out to celebrate the triumphs of the communist revolution and ignore its failures. And all the ceremony will also ignore the fact that China, today, is hardly a communist country.”
— World News Tonight, September 29, 1999.
"My (Canadian) mother was pretty anti-American. And so I was, in some respects, raised with Anti-Americanism in my blood, or in my mother's milk at least."
--Peter Jennings to David Letterman on The Late Show, September 6, 2002
Peter Jennings. May he rest in peace. And so may we.
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