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AP ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings Dies at 67 By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer 21 minutes ago NEW YORK - Peter Jennings, the suave, Canadian-born broadcaster who deliv ered the news to Americans each night in five separate decades, died Sun day.
Jennings, who announced in April that he had lung cancer, died at his New York home, ABC News President David Westin said late Sunday. "Peter has been our colleague, our friend, and our leader in so many ways . With Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, Jennings was part of a triumvirate that d ominated network news for more than two decades, through the birth of ca ble news and the Internet. His smooth delivery and years of internationa l reporting experience made him particularly popular among urban dweller s Jennings dominated the ratings from the late 1980s to the mid-'90s, when Brokaw surpassed him. He remained a Canadian until 2003, when he became a US citizen, saying it had nothing to do with his politics he did i t for his family. "He was a warm and loving and surprisingly sentimental man," said Ted Kop pel, a longtime friend and fellow anchor. Jennings deeply regretted not finishing school, and he would have wanted that lesson passed along, Koppel said. He made up for it by becoming a s tudent of the world, studying cultures and their people for the rest of his life. "Sometimes he dro ve me crazy because he knew so many details. Jennings was the face of ABC News whenever a big story broke. He logged m ore than 60 hours on the air during the week of the Sept. "There are a lot of people who think our job is to reassure the public ev ery night that their home, their community and their nation is safe," he told author Jeff Alan. I subscribe t o leaving people with essentially sorry it's a cliche a rough draft of history. Some days it's reassuring, some days it's absolutely destruc tive." Jennings' announcement four months ago that the longtime smoker would beg in treatment for lung cancer came as a shock. "I will continue to do the broadcast," he said, his voice husky, in a tap ed message that night. But although Jennings occasionally came to the office between chemotherap y treatments, he never again appeared on the air. But he faced it with realism, co urage, and a firm hope that he would be one of the fortunate ones," West in said. A picture of his father was displayed prominently in Jennings ' office off ABC's newsroom. Charles Jennings' son had a Saturday morning radio show in Ottawa at age 9 Jennings never completed high school or college, and began his career as a news reporter at a radio station in Brockton, Ontario. Sent south to cover the Democratic national convention in 1964, the hands ome, dashing correspondent was noticed by ABC's news president. Jennings was offered a reporting job and left Canada for New York. As the third-place news network, ABC figured its only chance was to go af ter young viewers. Jennings was picked to anchor the evening news and de buted on Feb. "It was a little ridiculous when you think about it," Jennings told autho r Barbara Matusow. "A twenty-six-year-old trying to compete with Cronkit e, Huntley and Brinkley. Critics savaged him as a pretty face unfit for the promotion. Using the C anadian pronunciations for some words and once misidentifying the Marine Corps' anthem as "Anchors Aweigh" didn't help his reputation. He later described the humbling experience as an opportunity, "because I was obliged to figure out who I was and what I really wanted to be." He established an ABC News bureau in Beirut, and became an expert on the Middle East. He w on a Peabody Award for a 1974 profile of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. On the scene at the Munich Olympics in 1972, Jennings was perfectly place d to cover the hostage-taking of Israeli athletes by an Arab terrorist g roup. He and a crew hid in the athletes' quarters for a close-in view of the drama. Jennings returned to the evening news a decade after his unceremonious de parture. In 1978, ABC renamed its broadcast "World News Tonight," and in stituted a three-person anchor team: Frank Reynolds based in Washington, Max Robinson from Chicago and Jennings, by then ABC's chief foreign cor respondent, from London. Following Reynolds' death from cancer, ABC abandoned the multi-anchor for mat and Jennings became sole anchor on Sept. Starting in 1986, Jennings began a decade on top of the ratings.
Gulf War and the terrorist bombing of an airplane over Lockerbie, Scotland. He too k pride that "World News Tonight," as its name suggested, took a more wo rldly view than its rivals. Fans responded to his smart, controlled styl e "When it's clearly an emotional experience for the audience, the anchor s hould not add his or her emotional layers," Jennings said in an intervie w with the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. Two-thirds of local broadcasters responding to a 1993 survey by Broadcast ing & Cable magazine said Jennings was the best network news anchor. Was hington Journalism Review named him anchor of the year three straight ye ars. With Americans looking more inward in the mid to late-1990s, NBC's Tom Br okaw surpassed Jennings in the ratings. When Brokaw stepped down in November 2004, followed shortly by Rat her, ABC began an advertising campaign stressing Jennings' experience an ironic twist given how his ABC News career began. But ABC was never able to learn whether Jennings could take advantage of his role as an elder statesman; his cancer diagnosis came only a month a fter Rather left the anchor chair. Jennings was proud of his Canadian citizenship, although it was occasiona lly a sore point with some critics.
Jennings whispered back his secret: He had just passed a test earning him dual citizenship in the United States. "My decision to do this has nothing to do with politics," Jennings told T he Associated Press at the time. "It has nothing to do with my professio n It has everything to do with my family." Restlessly curious, Jennings pushed ABC News to use the turn of the centu ry for a massive historical study. He co-wrote a book, "The Century," wi th Todd Brewster and anchored a marathon 25-hour special ending Jan. Jennings and Brewster also traveled the backroads to write "In Sea rch of America." Jennings also led a documentary team at ABC News, which struck a chord in 2000 with the high-rated spiritual special "The Search for Jesus." "I have never spent a day in my adult life where I didn't learn something ," Jennings told the Saturday Evening Post. "And if there is a born-agai n quality to me, that's it." Like Rather and Brokaw, Jennings wasn't entirely comfortable stuck to a s tudio. He traveled around the world to cover stories and, when he didn't journey to Asia to cover the aftermath of the tsunami less than four mo nths before his cancer diagnosis, it was noticed. He is survived by his wife, Kayce Freed, and his two children, Elizabeth, 25, and Christopher, 23.
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Peter Jennings poses at one of ABC's studios in New York, in this Feb . Jennings, the suave, Canadian-born broadcaster who delivered the news to Americans each night in five separate decades, di ed Sunday Aug.
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