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snowy · 08-07-2005, 08:40 PM

Legendary ABC News anchor Peter Jennings passed away tonight. He was 67.

Quote:

Peter Jennings, the suave, Canadian-born broadcaster who delivered the news to Americans each night in five separate decades, died Sunday. He was 67. Jennings, who announced in April that he had lung cancer, died at his New York home, ABC News President David Westin said late Sunday.

Peter Jennings was the face of ABC News whenever a big story broke.

''Peter has been our colleague, our friend, and our leader in so many ways. None of us will be the same without him,'' Westin said.

With Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, Jennings was part of a triumvirate that dominated network news for more than two decades, through the birth of cable news and the Internet. His smooth delivery and years of international reporting experience made Jennings particularly popular among urban dwellers.

Jennings was the face of ABC News whenever a big story broke. He logged more than 60 hours on the air during the week of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, offering a soothing sense of continuity during a troubled time.

''There are a lot of people who think our job is to reassure the public every night that their home, their community and their nation is safe,'' he told author Jeff Alan. ''I don't subscribe to that at all. I subscribe to leaving people with essentially -- sorry it's a cliche -- a rough draft of history. Some days it's reassuring, some days it's absolutely destructive.''

Jennings' announcement four months ago that the longtime would begin treatment for lung cancer came as a shock.

''I will continue to do the broadcast,'' he said, his voice husky, in a taped message that night. ''On good days, my voice will not always be like this.''

But although Jennings occasionally came to the office between chemotherapy treatments, he never again appeared on the air.

I don't know about most of you, but Peter Jennings is the first network news anchor I remember. When I was small, we only got ABC, and so Peter Jennings was who Dad watched when he watched the news. I will always have fond memories of him reading the news. I think it's sad that we have lost such a great journalist in a day and age when they seem to be few and far between.