| MY "BOYFRIEND" PETER JENNINGS |
| Written by Maria Elena Salinas |
| Tuesday, August 16 2005 |
| |
| There's a photograph in my living room of me sitting next to a TV set watching Peter Jennings deliver the news with an adoring look on my face. My husband took the picture. He was very well aware of my infatuation with Peter. "Peter Jennings is my boyfriend," I'd often kid in my newsroom. Some took it seriously enough that the day after his death, they actually came into my office to offer their condolences.
I don't mean to be disrespectful to his wife, Kayce, or my husband, Eliott, but I, like millions of other television viewers in the United States and abroad, watched "ABC World News Tonight" not just to keep up with current events, but also to hear them delivered by a man of great poise and stature. Yes, he was handsome and distinguished, but above all he was a solid journalist who brought dignity to the profession.
To highlight only his movie-star good looks would trivialize the impact he had on the world of news. Peter Jennings epitomized what a true journalist should be: thorough, balanced, well-informed, brave, credible, tough yet sensitive. He had the ability to take very complex issues and simplify them for the audience. He brought the world to the homes of the Americans who watched him, giving people a reason to care about the troubles of those they didn't even know, in faraway lands. Not too many people can claim that kind of legacy.
Yes, ABC News has had healthy competition from other networks and alternative newsgathering operations that have sprung up in the past couple of decades, but I would dare to say that Jennings was a journalist's journalist, an anchor's anchor. Many of us in the business watched him not for the details -- we all have access to the same information -- but for his perspective.
Those who knew him rave not just about his journalistic abilities but also about what a personable and humble person he was. I remember the first time I met him. It was in 1992, at the Republican convention in Houston. Our executive producer saw him enter the men's room and waited outside until he came out. Of course she knew what a fan I was, so she asked him if he could please accompany her to our workspace to meet the staff. He was gracious enough to accept, and actually chatted with us for a while. I recall that he asked me if "Latino" or "Hispanic" was the correct term to use when referring to our community. He seemed genuinely interested in our work.
Since Jennings lost his fight against lung cancer on Aug. 7, many have said that his passing also marks the death -- once and for all -- of network evening news. To support that idea would mean writing my own advance obituary. As a network anchor myself, I am not ready to start digging my own grave. My co-anchor Jorge Ramos and I are lucky that Spanish-language media do not yet have as many competing outlets as do mainstream media, and our audience, comprised mostly of the fastest-growing minority in the country, continues to grow.
Still, there is no doubt that the departure of Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather and now Peter Jennings from the anchor seat means an era in broadcast journalism has come to an end. It's been a while since people stopped running to their TV sets around dinnertime to get the latest news. For that they can now turn on cable TV at any time, log on to the Internet or even use their cell phones. It's been some time since the traditional concept of objective journalism has passed. Now people seem to depend more on "infotainment" and opinion shows than on serious newsgathering operations.
For those reasons, network news has had to reinvent itself, relying more on feature stories than breaking news, focusing more on in-depth analysis than just the facts, and promoting not one but several news personalities per outlet. It is not easy for one person alone to command the type of respect, credibility and trust that take years to build and that only experience can give.
It is my hope that network news will indeed survive in one format or another. But I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that I will miss Peter Jennings. |
