# Brokaw, Jennings, Rather, Lehrer - The Talking Heads **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2001, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557 "2001-10-30T17:39:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/1 "2001-10-30T17:39:16Z")
Which one of these newscasts do you watch? Any particular reason? For me its Peter Jennings and Jim Lehrer. Jennings has a cool detachment that I like, and I like the hour long format of the Lehrer broadcasts. My PBS stations also carries the BBC WorldNews and I watch that from time to time to get a different perspective. And that’s the way it is. Good night, David. Good night, Chet. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/2 "2001-10-30T17:41:02Z")
Damn, now I can’t get the image of Dan Rather singing “Psycho Killer” out of my head. ---
**Author:** ![Rockmotteller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/51bf81/32.png) [@Rockmotteller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rockmotteller)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/3 "2001-10-30T19:36:02Z")
It’s Jennings and Lehrer for me too. If I had to choose just one, I would go with the News Hour because I much prefer it’s format and depth of discussion. But I watch Jennings’ show for it’s quick coverage of a wide variety of topics in its half hour; I take it like a synopsis of the day’s news. Why Jennings instead of Brokaw or Rather? Just long, comfortable habit. ---
**Author:** ![SterlingNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@SterlingNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SterlingNorth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/4 "2001-10-30T19:57:00Z")
I just want to hear Dan Rather say silly-assed things! ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2001, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/5 "2001-10-30T23:54:41Z")
Dan Rather - David Byrne Jim Lehrer - Tina Weymouth Peter Jennings - Chris Frantz Tom Brokaw - Jerry Harrison As for the nightly new, my interest level’s dropping. ---
**Author:** ![Dryga\_Yes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@Dryga\_Yes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dryga_Yes)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/6 "2001-10-31T00:05:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Wumpus \* > \*\*Damn, now I can’t get the image of Dan Rather singing “Psycho Killer” out of my head. \*\* …I hate people when they’re not polite… _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/7 "2001-10-31T00:38:55Z")
Say something once / Why say it again? That’s why I don’t watch the evening snooze. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/8 "2001-10-31T12:57:07Z")
Same as it ever was…same as it ever was… ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/9 "2001-11-02T08:21:52Z")
I watch Peter Jennings, but also like Brian Williams. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/10 "2001-11-02T11:02:10Z")
They all stopped making sense long ago… ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/11 "2001-11-02T16:58:04Z")
Fun thread! “I’m embarrassed to admit it, It hit the soft spot in my heart when I found out you wrote the Book I read.” I haven’t read either Brokaw’s or Rather’s recent books on the WWII generation (I’d just as soon read history books written by actual historians.) :rolleyes: Any takers? And is it just me, or is Peter Jennings beginning to lose it just a bit? Not true senior moments, you know, but just a bit of digressive rambling, a touch of mad scrambling for words now and then… (Call it Charlie Rose syndrome.) Anybody know if Jennings still smokes heavily? IIRC, the now-defunct “SPY” magazine reported that after his divorce of several years ago, Jennings was known to prowl about the ABC halls with his chest hair protruding from his partly-unbuttoned shirt. He’s also been quoted saying something to the effect that he can’t help himself with women; he finds them irresistable. [Well, he would be pretty tough to resist, wouldn’t he? Except for the smoking, that is…] Dave Barry once wrote years ago, after Rather’s “Courage” phase, that he always watches Dan Rather, because he just knows that some day he’s gonna go crackers on the air [a la Peter Finch in “Network”]. Talk about making an easy call… I’d grant an exemption in the case of anthrax-in-your-office, though. I thought Brokaw’s emotional personal touch re. his personal assistant’s contracting anthrax was quite, well, touching. “Some good points; some bad points; It all works out (sometimes I’m a little freaked out!)” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/12 "2001-11-02T17:05:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by The Scrivener \* > **Dave Barry once wrote years ago, after Rather’s “Courage” phase, that he always watches Dan Rather, because he just knows that some day he’s gonna go crackers on the air [a la Peter Finch in “Network”]. Talk about making an easy call…** We occasionally see Dan Rather’s broadcasts this side of the pond. Is it just my television, or has he gone some strange shade of orange? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brokaw-jennings-rather-lehrer-the-talking-heads/90557/13 "2001-11-02T17:45:37Z")
I used to watch Walter Cronkite, of course (and no cracks about how I’m old enough to have listened to Edward R. Murrow!). When he retired, I stuck with CBS long enough to find that young Rather puppy too intense and scary. So I switched to NBC and watch Brokaw (and the NYC affiliate beforehand, with the agreeably fluff-headed Sue Simmons). Brokaw does annoy me sometimes with his heartwarming, Norman Rockwell grandstanding: I once wrote a complaint when he said that Madalyn Murray O’Hair “had the dubious distinction of being the world’s most famous atheist.” I asked him if he would say the Pope “had the dubious distinction of being the world’s most famous Catholic,” and he wrote me an apology and said I had a point. Still, I get most of my news from Jon Stewart these days . . .