That's entertainment?
Mari Margil
For those of us concerned with the quality and credibility of the American media, well, I have no words of comfort.
Sunday's passing of long-time ABC anchorman Peter Jennings is but one, albeit sad, example of how little even the press thinks of itself.
CNN's on-line coverage of his death is to be found in the website's "Entertainment" section...what a way to go.
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8:30 p.m.
Aug 8, '05
Peter Jennings' death was a sad one. Having grown up a writer, and spent several years working as a journalist, he is a person I always looked up to. I grew up watching him on tv. Our family watched the news every single night from 5 to 7 and again from 10 to 11 (news is on an hour earlier in Texas). It was always ABC news that we watched. I'll definitely miss him.
It doesn't surprise me that they placed the story of his death under entertainment. They typically place any stories dealing with tv, or the people on tv, in that section. But it does seem wrong to place it there-- Jennings was a lot more than entertainment. At least last night the story on CNN.com had the red "breaking news" bar at the top of the page as well as the main news story.
It has been nice to see all of the other stations talking about him so highly, announcing his death last night on the air as soon as they heard, etc. Jennings, Rather, and Brokow came from a time when news was exactly that-- news. It wasn't entertainment. Hopefully that trend can continue with the next generation of news anchors.
Aug 9, '05
I thought Jennings coverage of both 9-11 and Iraq was handled with grace and aplomb, juggling issues with noted objectivity while conveying an emotional resonance far exceeding his colleagues.
He seemed to have a real connection to the issues and the people.( I know he spent some time in the middle east, back in the day)--The fact that he achieved his accolades and status without the required-pedigree speaks even more to the man---
RIP
JOS
Aug 10, '05
Yes, his death was a sad event. But never ever forget that televison news, no matter how much they pretend to be "real journalism", is still first and foremost entertainment. Commercial television programming is nothing more than something entertaining enough to get the eyeballs and ears for the advertisers. Yes, Peter Jennings the man may well have been a journalist, but the job he was doing was, above all else, entertainment.