On The Daily Nightly, Brian Williams shares an e-mail from Peter Jennings this spring:
“Damn, I would so much rather be competing with you than getting through my first serious encounter with chemotherapy. But, what do they say in our business? Every experience goes into the memory bank to be dragged out at some later date to show the audience that we’re experienced!”
Williams’ blog entry includes several thoughts, including well-deserved praise for Charlie Gibson. BW says Gibson “performed with such grace, dignity, humanity and obvious warmth and appreciation.”
After the jump, read Williams’ Nightly News endnote about Jennings…
NBC Nightly News, August 8:
“Finally tonight a word about Peter Jennings.. who today was remembered during the very same non-stop cable news coverage.. that Peter himself often expressed reservations about. One moment from today stands out: one particular cable channel paused, during its remembrance.. to switch live to a picture of an overturned tanker truck on a highway in California.. and it got us to thinking Peter felt very strongly about the stories we should cover…and just as strongly about what we shouldn’t go near.. the stories that aren’t news… the popular stories or the pretty pictures.. that really have no business on a network evening newscast. And so it just might be.. that the very best way to honor his legacy.. is for all of us to stick to covering what we know. And covering the hard-to-pronounce country, halfway around the planet, where there’s a story of real human consequence. Even if that means passing on the pictures of the tanker truck. We’ve lost an awfully good journalist. We can remember him, in part, through good journalism. Our condolences tonight to Peter’s family.”