Peter Jennings has lung cancer

Cafe Society
1

ABC News announced today that Peter Jennings has lung cancer and will begin treatment.

Aside from the sympathy I feel for him, I also wonder if this might be the final blow that forces the American TV networks to rethink how they deliver the news.

Are the days of the white middle-aged man in a tailored suit sitting behind a desk coming to a close, or is an evening newscast still relevant to today’s viewers?

And it’s a double gut-punch to ABC, with Ted Koppel announcing he’s leaving Nightline at the end of the year.

2

In a recent feature on Dan Rather, the **New Yorker ** reported that the average age of a viewer of the evening news is 60. Besides explaining the preponderance of antacid commercials, this fact suggests that under-60s are getting their news elsewhere. I know I do, though Walter Cronkite was a fixture of my childhood.

3

I get most of my news from the internet. By the time I get up in the morning, shave, brush my teeth, shower, and get dressed, the morning news program has finished with all the real news and is doing something like interviewing the new third-grade spelling bee champion, or showing pictures of cute puppies that you can adopt. Not only is the online news not locked into a specific timeslot, but it talks about a wider range of subjects, and I’m able to find multiple viewpoints on controversial subjects.
It’s just better than TV news.

4

So that’s Ted Koppel, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, all retiring, and now Peter Jennings will probably ramp down or be forced to retire.

It’s a changing of the guard. Really it’s an unprecedented opportunity to let News grow up a bit and be a little less traditional.

5

Really. I hadn’t heard that. I hope he recovers.