Peter Jennings, longtime anchor of the ABC evening news, was not the last of a breed

National Review, August 29, 2005

Peter Jennings, longtime anchor of the ABC evening news, was not the last of a breed. The last were Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley. They were the gods; their successors at the Big Three networks--Jennings, Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather--were the after-gods, presiding over shrinking audiences and clout.

With every year, their domains shrank yet further: The average age of Jennings's audience, according to Nielsen, was about 60. Still, Peter Jennings was an impressive figure, simultaneously sleek and earnest. Liberal as his peers, he acknowledged that the political monoculture of the newsroom was a problem (after one such statement he lunched with NR). Canadian born and bred--about in his mouth was always a homonym of the footgear--he became an American citizen in 2003. His death from cancer at age 67 is a shock. R.I.P.