Christians, others remember Peter Jennings

By Meghan Wood

PETER JENNINGS, the Canadian-born, internationally-revered broadcaster, lost his battle with lung cancer last Sunday. He died at his home in New York. He was 67.

Known widely in the Christian community for his promotion of understanding faith and religion in America, Jennings was responsible for the first religion beat on a major television network, ABC.

Jennings announced his diagnosis on the air April 5. Following that, the lifelong smoker occasionally made appearances at the office, but never appeared on air again.

His career as a broadcaster spanned five decades, and the Washington Journalism Review dubbed him anchor of the year for three years in a row -- a remarkable feat for someone who never finished high school. As NBC's Tom Brokaw said August 8, "Peter was born to be an anchor . . . He seemed so timeless. He had such elan and style."

He said he wanted his documentaries to give the American public a greater knowledge of the birth of Christianity and an appreciation of how the Roman Empire facilitated the faith's mobility.

Having grown up in an Anglican home, Jennings was intrigued by the role religion played in North American society. He experienced its importance in eastern cultures firsthand during his tenure as a foreign correspondent for ABC News from 1968 to 1974.

"I have never spent a day in my adult life where I didn't learn something," he told the Saturday Evening Post. "And if there is a born-again quality to me, that's it."

In a 2004 interview on Larry King Live, Jennings explained the perspective of today's Christians toward the faith's durability over the years.

"If you are a true believer in the literal word of the gospels today, it comes as no surprise to you that this tiny little sect from the first century has survived now, because it is the truth, it is the word, it is inevitable," he said.

"But I think for other people in the world today it is, in some respects, astonishing that this tiny sect, one among many in this strange remote corner of the Roman Empire should have survived as it has done for 2,000 years. Survived and thrived beyond anybody's imagination."

When he returned from the east, Jennings noticed the lack of religious coverage in the American news media. But he noticed debates fuelled by the passion of faith and he saw the military, criminals in the justice system and sports figures transformed by religion.

Peggy Wehmeyer

Wehmeyer was the first national religion correspondent for a major television network. She worked and studied at Dallas Theological Seminary and began her broadcasting career in the early 1980s at Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA-TV, creating the first religion beat in local television and winning various awards for her work.

Jennings contacted her in 1994, asking her to join ABC World News Tonight as the religion correspondent. Her stories also aired on 20/20 and Good Morning America.

After budget cuts in 2001 eliminated her position, she became host and managing editor with World Vision Report, a weekend newsmagazine and daily feature show produced by World Vision Radio, currently airing in the USA on Christian radio stations.

"[Jennings] was my boss and editor, very involved," Wehmeyer told CC.com. "He was a true mentor to me. He taught me a lot on the craft of good journalism and was a very good friend. He probably had the most defining role in my 20-year career. He had the most influence."

Wehmeyer could not say whether Jennings was a believer, but said while most news people are ignorant and dismissive of religion, he was curious, interested and an intense seeker.

"Because of his influence, millions of Americans have been able to understand and appreciate the role of religion in American life," she said. "We certainly had many discussions about faith and religion and he knew about my faith and what it meant to me. He was always very open and interested in hearing about my life, faith and work and how they intersected."

In a Harvard Divinity School speech, Jennings did talk about his own faith.

"Today I find there is both comfort and challenge in practicing my faith, and though I am a dismal failure on many fronts, in trying to live it . . . my own faith has helped me to develop eyes that see the spiritual dimension in many stories."

In 2004, Jennings told Christianity Today that he was sympathetic to the notion that people are moved by faith.

"I once gave a brief talk here at ABC in which I said to reporters, 'When you go to an airplane accident and you ask people what they think it was that got them through this crisis, and they say, "God did," don't ever ask them, 'No, I mean what really got you through?' I'm sensitive to faith to that extent."

Wehmeyer said she admired most his almost unreal ability to multi-task and contain massive amounts of information without making mistakes when regurgitating it on camera. She called him one of the brightest men she has ever known.

In 1994, when she was first being considered for the position at World News Tonight, Jennings took her to a nice restaurant in New York City for dinner. At the time, she was raising two small children. In the middle of their conversation, she said Jennings gave her a funny look.

"He just said, 'What are you doing?' I was talking and realized that I was buttering his bread. I was really embarrassed," she said.

Jennings' father Charles was a prominent radio announcer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), and the first person to anchor a nightly national news program in Canada. Jennings was 10 when he first anchored Peter's Program, a Saturday morning radio show which showcased young talent. He began his professional career as a disc jockey and news reporter for a small radio station in Brockville, Ontario.

In 1961, he was hired at Canada's first private TV network, CTV, after being noticed covering a train wreck for the CBC. He was then noticed by ABC News president Elmer Lower, and he joined the American network in 1964.

He was hired as an anchor for a short evening news segment and, at 26, was the youngest national networks news anchor. But his lack of experience combined with periodic Canadian pronunciations led to three years of low ratings. To remedy the situation, he was posted as a foreign correspondent in 1968 to gain experience and credibility.

Jennings established himself in the Arab world and began an ABC News bureau in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1972, during the terrorist crisis at the Munich Olympics, he hid in the athletes' quarters to capture the hostage-taking of Israeli athletes.

Ten years after he left the ABC evening news, he returned to World News Tonight, as one of three anchors, the chief foreign correspondent in London. In 1983, he became the sole anchor of the show, and spent the following 20 years covering major events around the globe. Since 1986, he rode the ratings wave at number one.

In 1993, Nielsen Media Research found World News Tonight drew almost 14 million viewers nightly. He earned 14 national Emmys and two George Foster Peabody Awards.