Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

anchorman

It’s been a few days now, but I’m still a bit kerflummoxed by the Sunday evening death of ABC News anchor Peter Jennings from lung cancer. Despite his scratchy voice when he announced his illness in April, despite the fact that he hadn’t really been seen publicly since then (and the constant emphasis of his ABC cohorts on his continuing involvement in the nightly newscast), despite even a rumor on Saturday that ABC had alerted some of its affiliates that the end might be near, it never really occurred to me that Jennings wouldn’t come back on the air. It certainly never occurred to me that he’d be the first of the “big three” anchors to pass away; despite being two years older than Tom Brokaw (and seven years older than Dan Rather), he always seemed so much younger than the others — yet certainly not lacking in gravitas. (Indeed, until I read his obituaries, I didn’t realize just how strong a background he had in reporting world affairs.)

Last night, I watched the first half hour of ABC’s two-hour (and commercial-free) tribute to Jennings. I’ll probably watch the rest of it tonight.

I don’t even watch the evening news anymore — probably haven’t since high school, when the evening news (we were a Brokaw household) would be playing in the background while we watched dinner, though I occasionally watched ABC’s World News Tonight in college and afterwards — but the idea that Jennings is gone — not just retired, but gone — seems inconceivable.