User talk:Gzkn/Sandbox/Peter Jennings

Some Sources

Refs:

USA Today [1]
CJR [2]
NYTimes [3]
ABCNews [4]
Museum.tv [5]
CTV.ca [6]
CNN [7]
CBC [8]
Disney [9]
Reader's Digest Interview [10]
Larry King transcript [11]
MRC [12]
Peter Jennings' production company: [13]
Harvard Divinity School: [14]
Beliefnet.com: [15] apparently helped save the site search results
AJR Showing emotion
AJR Anchoring the nation
MRC 9/11
Transcript of KSG panel: perhaps best for Further Reading?

LEXIS NEXIS:

TOP OF THE NEWS WHY PETER JENNINGS IS SO GOOD - Boston Globe

External Links section

Begin writer's block timeline :)

June 14, 1984 - ABC News Closeup: War and Power -- The Rise of Syria

June 17, 1984 - ABC News pulls plug on DNC convention (Tom Shales), also Jennings, having been out of the country so long, was rusty on his American politics (Boston Globe Magazine, 1988)

1984 - Anchors Summer Olympics with Jim Mckay

November 21, 1984 - CIA files complaint against ABC News

May 6, 1985 - Shales describes Jennings as most Reagan friendly.

May 13, 1985 U.S. News & World Report releases poll of TV journalists: Jennings lags far behind Rather and Cronkite.

September 1985 - gives speech in Nashville criticizing aspects of TV news.

September 18, 1985 - anchors 45/85

January 1986 - Praised (like Rather/Brokaw) for covering Challenger

May 10, 1986 - Jennings praises ouster of Vernados at CBS

August 1986 - Newcasters' facial expressions and voting behavior of viewers: Can a smile elect a president? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

February 9, 1987 - WPOST reports on declining ratings for network evening news in general

March 26, 1987 - NYTimes reports on "secret" new ABC WNT format developed

July 13, 1987 - Jennings and Kati Marton separate (but no divorce yet)

09/22/1987 - Airs first Capital to Capital program. Live broadcast forum from Washington, DC and Moscow with Representative Les Aspin, Representative Trent Lott, Senator Sam Nunn and several Soviet officials re: US-USSR relations.

July 11, 1988 - Drugs, why this plague

1988 - Part of a panel of journalists for the first Bush/Dukakis debate. Praised for his pointed questions to both candidates (TOP OF THE NEWS WHY PETER JENNINGS IS SO GOOD, Boston Globe)

February 28, 1989 - Jennings anchors first of a series of AIDS Quarterly on PBS

July 25, 1989 - Jennings apologizes for fake footage aired on last friday's WNT broadcast that wasn't marked as fake.

October 17, 1989 - S.F. Earthquake. Jennings/ABC coverage bests others due to coverage of world series. Tom Brokaw fails to adequately cover earthquake in early moments.

November 9, 1989 - Berlin Wall falls...NBC's Tom Brokaw beats Jennings/Rather to the scene for an hour...emphasize ultra-competitiveness here

November 29, 1989 - NYTimes reports that WNT is now number 1 for 8 straight weeks

December 14, 1989 - USAToday reports that WNT is now number 1 in the ratings for 10 straight weeks.

1990

January 8, 1990 - Calls split screen decision to air caskets during Bush's news conference wrong. Apologizes.

January 24, 1990 - Inaugural installment of Peter Jennings Reporting. This one on guns

April 9, 1990 - Newsweek reports that WNT is Bush's favorite evening newscast.

April 26, 1990 - "anchored From the Killing Fields, which showed the U.S. government giving military aid to a coalition that included the murderous Khmer Rouge. The White House denied the charges; ABC and Jennings stood by the story."

June 25, 1990 - Publishes "Moose Jaw, U.S.A.? Never! Jamais!" for Maclean's.

July 18, 1990 - Bush administration withdraws recognition of the Khmer Rouge

October 28, 1990 - Kati Marton comments in Boston Globe about marriage troubles

November 1, 1990 - Jennings reports on Abortion for "The New Civil War" and Nightline

For all of 1990, ABC led ratings battle.

1991

January 16, 1991 - Jennings starts marathon coverage of Gulf War. ABC tops ratings for war coverage this night.

January 19, 1991 - Jennings "interrupted Saturday morning's fantasyland of animated cartoons for a military briefing from Saudi Arabia. Aware that most Saturday-morning viewers are school-age children, he directed some of his introductory remarks to young people."

January 26, 1991 - Anchors "War in the Gulf: Answering Children's Questions"; praised by Tom Shales

March/April 1991 - CJR does long in-depth article on WNT. Concludes that WNT is the best of the three (although by slim margins). Praises "American Agenda," "the network's thrice-weekly look at national social issues".

July 25, 1991 - Peter Jennings Reporting: From the Heart of Harlem; profile of Harlem's ballet company

August 15, 1991 - LA Daily News reports Jennings has highest "TVQ" score (see http://www.qscores.com/tv.asp) of the three news anchors.

August 19, 1991 - Graduate student of Syracuse University presents at the American Psychological Association conference research that repeats Brian Mullen's research on newscaster smiles. Once again, Jennings was said to favor Republican candidates in his facial expressions.

September 5, 1991 - "National Town Meeting" for Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and TV viewers. The two take questions from selected TV viewers.

October 13, 1991 - AP reports that all three networks interrupt regular Saturday morning cartoons with coverage of the Senate confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas (during Anita Hill thing). Jennings is once again mindful of audience: "You may hear some not very nice language," Jennings said, adding that Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas and his accuser, Anita Hill, "have a very painful disagreement about some things the woman says the man did to her when they were working together. "Though he never touched her, she says he said many things to her which were mean and disgusting, which made her feel threatened and very bad. "You can ask your parents to tell you more."

1992

February 2, 1992 - More stuff for kids: Growing Up in the Age of AIDS; 90 minutes and toll free number again

March 5, 1992 - Moderates Dem. debate.

April 25, 1992 - More stuff for kids: Prejudice: Answering Children's Questions; AP reporter Scott Williams says that Jennings interrupted Sat. morning cartoons during the 1989 Tienanmen Square uprising too. "Jennings remembers telling his younger viewers that they might want to wake their parents so they, too, could watch the news. "I got a lot of mail from fathers who said, 'My son came in and said you wanted to talk to me.'""

May 5, 1992 - Peter Jennings Reporting: Men, Sex and Rape; TV critics not entirely impressed

June 29, 1992 - Airs "Peter Jennings Reporting: Who Is Ross Perot?"

September 9, 1992 - ABC switches format of its political coverage; new format will try to downplay staged soundbites. "We're aware that a lot of you are turned off by the political process and that many of you put at least some of the blame on us," Jennings told viewers. As a result, he said, "We'll only devote time to a candidate's daily routine if it is more than routine. There will be less attention to staged appearances and sound bites designed exclusively for television."

December 28, 1992 - airs "The Cocaine War, Lost in Bolivia". NYTimes: "If Bill Clinton tunes into ABC tonight, he will hear himself being instructed by Peter Jennings to admit that "the cocaine war in Bolivia is already lost" and to stop wasting money on it. Such a directive to an incoming President may seem a touch presumptuous, even from a network anchor, but it is forcefully backed up by pointed interviews and vivid scenes from the field."

1993

January 1993 - Jennings reports from Bosnia for two weeks.

January 28, 1993 - Plain Dealer reports that Peter Jennings has signed a "generous" new five-year contract with ABC News after a brief romance with CBS' "60 Minutes," which reportedly offered him a permanent base in Paris. The flirtation was first reported in the Los Angeles Times. A CBS source said, "Peter contacted us."

February 20, 1993 - Even more programs for kids! This time: "President Clinton: Answering Children's Questions"

March 16, 1993 - Jennings tops Harris poll as most popular anchor.

August 1993 - "Strange Bedfellows" by Tom Rosenstiel is published. Rosenstiel, a media watcher for the Los Angeles Times, spent the 1992 campaign year with ABC News.

August 13, 1993 - From Toronto Star: "ABC News anchor Peter Jennings and his wife of 15 years, Kati Marton, are going their separate ways. The couple made the break official Friday (8/13) in Liz Smith's Newsday gossip column, which spells out "there is no third party involved on either side." USAToday: The couple previously separated in 1987 for four months. Toronto Star: Separated after the newsman found out that Marton was having an affair with Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen. "It was awful, terrible, the worst thing that ever happened to me," Jennings told USA Today afterward.

November 4, 1993 - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette does longish interview with him. Stirs debate about the "liberal" media not covering enough conservative/religious topics. Is adding religious reporter to ABC

November 6, 1993 - Another Saturday morning special for kids: "Kids in the Crossfire: Violence in America

1994

Throughout 1994: OJ Simpson coverage! "There is an utterly macabre nature to all this," said Peter Jennings on ABC (during the highway chase).

January 5, 1994 - Emily Rooney is fired. Press pumps up Rooney vs. Jennings

January 1994 - ABC finally hires a full-time religion correspondent, Peggy Wehmeyer, after three years of lobbying by Jennings.

February 9 - In a highly unorthodox move, the ABC newscast devoted 18 of its 22 minutes to the Whitewater scandal, a story spectacularly ill-suited to television. "We are going to attempt something ambitious this evening," anchor Peter Jennings announced, "which is to try to explain in one fell swoop the Whitewater jam that Bill and Hillary Clinton seem unable to get themselves out of."

March 16, 1994 - Sun Times reports that in a Harris Poll: "70 percent of the people polled answered "pretty fair" when asked, "In general, do you feel that the network news programs tend to be biased toward the Democrats, biased toward the Republicans or pretty fair?""

March 17, 1994 - "While America Watched: The Bosnia Tragedy." documentary - highly critical of Bush and Clinton administrations for ignoring Bosnian tragedies.

March 19, 1994 - 50 kids forum with Clinton.

June 1, 1994 - "Turning Point (ABC at 9:30 p.m.): Peter Jennings hosts this 90-minute historical special." D-day coverage.

June 15, 1994 - USAToday reports: "Barbra Streisand and Peter Jennings popped a lot of eyeballs by showing up together at Monday's White House state dinner. She was the one with the invitation, and mutual friends got her together with Jennings. The suave ABC anchor is separated from wife Kati Marton. But don't look for a relationship to bloom post-dinner."

July 27, 1994 - Airs "House on Fire: America's Haitian Crisis"; NYTimes describes it as Jennings' attack on President Clinton's policy

August 21, 1994 - Houston Chronicle - "The persistent ""rumor that Barbra Streisand and ABC News anchor Peter Jennings are an item is looking less and less like a rumor. Insiders report that Streisand, having wound up her concert tour, and Jennings, free of his marital obligations, are seeing a lot of each other. Columnist Liz Smith says the two spent a recent weekend together lazily ensconced in Jennings' home on Long Island. Liz and others are saying this looks like the real thing."

October 19, 1994 - Peter Johnson of USAToday (seems to have become a big Jennings fan) - ABC News president Roone Arledge says that CBS News is getting desperate in its search for ratings and that Tuesday night's broadcast lead showed it all. CBS, which began its Evening News with a report on the new Nicole Brown Simpson book by Faye Resnick, showed "a sense of desperation," said Arledge, who spoke to staffers at a party to celebrate the fifth anniversary of ABC's World News Tonight remaining in first place in the ratings. Anchor Peter Jennings agreed, saying that it's "clear CBS has gone in one direction and we've gone in another in a reasonable period of time." Both ABC and NBC Nightly News led their broadcasts with reports of floods in Texas.

November 14, 1994 - Jennings comments in ABC Radio on midterm elections: "Some thoughts on those angry voters. Ask parents of any 2-year-old and they can tell you about those temper tantrums: the stomping feet, the rolling eyes, the screaming. It's clear that the anger controls the child and not the other way around. It's the job of the parent to teach the child to control the anger and channel it in a positive way. "Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled 2-year-old rage. "The voters had a temper tantrum last week Parenting and governing don't have to be dirty words: the nation can't be run by an angry 2-year-old." - ABC World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings in his daily ABC Radio commentary, Nov. 14. MRC, conservative commentators (such as Cal Thomas) jumps all over him.

November 17, 1994 - Trivial, but amusing: "I'm having hockey withdrawal; it's devastating," ABC news anchor Peter Jennings says of the National Hockey League lockout. "Hockey is in my blood. I'm dying to call (NHL commissioner) Gary Bettman, who's a friend of mine, and ask him what's happening, but I won't."

1995

January 22, 1995 - Denies rumors of relationship with Barbra Streisand: Forget those rumors about ABC news anchor Peter Jennings and diva Barbra Streisand being an item. The tale first surfaced last year when the couple attended a White House state dinner together. When they were spied dining alone at the swank Drai's eatery in L.A. this week, some gossip columns cranked into high gear. Jennings laughs off romance rumblings by saying the dinner was just that.

About the spies who claimed they were holding hands, Jennings says, "They are either blind or malicious. We sat in the garden of the restaurant and spent the entire dinner discussing a speech Barbra was soon to give. The only thing that was exchanged across the table was a draft of her forthcoming remarks."

February 3, 1995 - Seattle Times reports that Jennings may leave anchor chair after his current contract expires in 1997; February 2: "at a taping of KOMO-TV's "Town Meeting" at Bellevue Community College, Jennings hammed it up with John Carlson, conservative host on news-talk KVI (570), who did his best to bait Jennings. Their exchanges brought the house down.

Who won? Judge for yourself on Feb. 12. They both played straight man. Also, Jennings was self-deprecating in a humorous way but also in an earnest sense. Twice yesterday he 'fessed up to poor judgment when, in a hastily written radio commentary last November, he compared the electorate to an angry 2-year-old.

"People thought I had insulted their sacred mandate and some thought I should go back to Canada," Jennings said at the Chamber of Commerce lunch.

"I hope I don't make that mistake again," he said. "Thank you for having me."

March 16, 1995 - Airs "Peter Jennings Reporting: In the Name of God"

April 20, 1995 - Anchors "Children First: Real Kids, Real Solutions"

April 24, 1995 - Airs The Peacekeepers: How the United Nations Failed in Bosnia; NYTimes says "In his third and strongest hourlong report from Bosnia, Peter Jennings takes aim at Lieut. Gen. Sir Michael Rose, the former commander of the United Nations forces in that battered land. The specific charge of "The Peacekeepers: How the United Nations Failed in Bosnia" is that having declared the towns of Gorazde and Bihac to be safe havens, the United Nations, represented in the field by General Rose, allowed the Serbian aggressors to get away with murder."

June 30, 1995 - Announcement that the boards of Disney and CapCities/ABC had approved a $19-billion takeover deal.

July 27, 1995 - Airs "Peter Jennings Reporting: Hiroshima: Why the Bomb Was Dropped"; conservatives slam it...WPost's Ken Ringle doesn't like it either.

September 12, 1995 - NY Daily News: "Here's something that could put those rumors of romance between Barbra Streisand and Peter Jennings to rest. Sources tell us that the dashing ABC anchorman and his live-in girlfriend, K.C. Freed, have been talking marriage."

October 1, 1995 - Times-Picayune does longish interview with him: Got his start in the South; comments on OJ ("Of a combined total of 1,592 minutes of O.J. coverage in the year after the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman, ABC had the least: 423 minutes, compared to 589 minutes on NBC and 580 on CBS."); discusses local news and sale to Disney

October 1995 - Throughout the 1995 Quebec referendum debate, Jennings is praised (a lot by the Canadian press) for his coverage of the issue, more so than NBC/CBS. Only one to anchor October 30 newscast from Montreal.

1996

January 12, 1996 - Christian Science Monitor reports "Over the past four years, ABC's World News Tonight has dedicated more time to the Bosnia story than other broadcast networks have. While the O.J. Simpson trial was the No. 1 news story on NBC and CBS in 1995, Bosnia topped the ticket at ABC. Mr. Jennings has also reported and anchored an hour-long prime-time special on the war in each of the past three years."

January 13, 1996 - One more for the kids; this time, Bosnia: "Bosnia 101: Who Lives There, Who Died There, Why Are We There?"

January 29, 1996 - "It is ludicrous that we are the only national television network to have a full-time religion reporter."

March 12, 1996 - USAToday reports that Jennings did interview with Television Quarterly.

March 15, 1996 - receives Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism at the Kennedy School http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=91615

April 11, 1996 - Rage and Betrayal: The Lives of Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols: Documentary on the two in preparation for one-year anniversary of the bombing (which he anchored WNT from OK City on April 19)

May 15, 1996 - Jennings joins GMA's co-hosts, Charles Gibson and Joan Lunden, and takes the morning show's 33 million American viewers on a tour of Ottawa.

June 2, 1996 - Knight-Ridder Tribune News reports on declining evening newscast viewership from a report by the Pew Research Center; "Fewer than half the public (42 percent) now says it regularly watches one of the three nightly broadcasts, down from 48 percent in 1995 and 60 percent in 1993, the report says."

June 27, 1996 - takes on tobacco industry with "Never Say Die: How the Cigarette Companies Keep On Winning."

July 31, 1996 - NY Daily News reports that NBC beats WNT for a week because of Olympics lead-ins and coverage.

September 25, 1996 - USAToday reports that NBC beats WNT for the first week of the season by a slim margin.

November 10, 1996 - This Week airs Brinkley's interview with (and apology to) Clinton.

December 25, 1996 - NY Daily News reports that "After a two-week run at the top by NBC's "Nightly News With Tom Brokaw," ABC's "World News Tonight With Peter Jennings" edged its way back into the No. 1 position last week, according to Nielsen. It was ABC's 219th weekly news win out of the last 225 weeks. However, only two-tenths of a rating point 194,000 homes separated the two newscasts."

1997

January/February 1997 - Many press reports on NBC's 'Nightly News' giving ABC hell in ratings race

March 6, 1997 - Westin takes over for Arledge. Both deny it has anything to do with recent troubles.

March 12, 1997 - Hosts "Peter Jennings Reporting: Pot of Gold" and a forum with Clinton and kids. Caps a month-long public service anti-drug push by ABC. Frank Rich not impressed.

March 31, 1997 - Chicago Sun-Times reports that ABC News' Executive vice president Paul Friedman, who was executive producer of "World News Tonight With Peter Jennings" from 1988 until January 1993, returned to his old post, after being passed over for president of ABC News in favor of David Westin. Retains his executive vice president title. "Kathryn Christensen, executive producer of the newscast since January 1996, remains on the show, returning to the job of managing editor. That position has been vacant the past year."

April 14, 1997 - New York Daily News has take on why WNT is falling in the ratings

May 4, 1997 - The Sunday Oregonian publishes long report on the decline of "hard news"

May 10, 1997 - Toronto Sun reports that "60 Minutes producer Don Hewitt has confirmed a report in Vanity Fair that he recently tried "to no avail" to lure news anchor Peter Jennings away from ABC." "The magazine had said that Hewitt's move came after David Westin was named president of ABC News, an appointment that reportedly displeased Jennings."

May 15, 1997 - ABC News makes its online debut according to the June 16 edition of Business Week

June 13, 1997 - Given honorary degree by Carleton University. "He left Lisgar Collegiate Institute without graduating, greatly upsetting his parents, then attended Carleton, where he says he "lasted about 10 minutes."" Apparently attended between Lisgar and Royal Bank.

June 15, 1997 - The Sunday Oregonian publishes a cover story on him. He discusses a variety of issues. He is now the longest serving network anchor (counting his two other stints).

June 26, 1997 - "Unfinished Business: The C.I.A. and Saddam Hussein", much of the program features...Ahmed Chalabi!

June/July - Jennings in Hong Kong to cover transition.

September 1997 - Covers both Princess Diana and Mother Theresa funerals.

September 25, 1997 - 20/20 airs with Jennings telling how they determined that the Cusack-JFK papers were fake.

October 24, 1997 - Ottawa citizen reports that Jennings will narrate Franz Lehar's comic operetta The Merry Widow, to raise money for Opera Lyra Ottawa and the National Arts Centre on February 21, 1998.

November 19, 1997 - USAToday reports that "for the first time in five years, the CBS Evening News has finished No. 2, beating onetime powerhouse World News Tonight on ABC."

November 21, 1997 - Arledge and Jennings are named in a lawsuit filed in New York of those involved with the Cusack-JFK papers, which ABC had debunked as false in a September 20/20 report.

December 4, 1997 - Airs "Dangerous World: The Kennedy Years";

December 6, 1997 - Marries 20/20 producer Kayce Freed.

December 26, 1997 - AP reports that surprisingly, "Viewership for network evening news programs is up compared with the same time last year, with gains at NBC and CBS offsetting a poor year for ABC's World News Tonight....Brokaw's NBC broadcast took over the leadership position from longtime ratings champion ABC as 1997 began, and NBC has kept it for most of the year. More recently, CBS has climbed past ABC into second place and even challenged NBC some weeks."

1998

January - Sam Donaldson returns to the White House beat.

January 14, 1998 - The Atlanta Journal and Constitution: "For the first time in years, more people are watching the three broadcast networks' nightly newscasts, and the three are running virtually neck and neck. For the week ending Sunday, "NBC Nightly News With Tom Brokaw" was first with 13.3 million viewers, followed by "ABC World News Tonight With Peter Jennings" at 12.2 million and "CBS Evening News With Dan Rather" at 12.1 million. Although ABC is down in the ratings from a year ago, both CBS and NBC are up in viewership, reversing a longstanding decline in network news watching."

January - February 1998 - Big Three flock to Cuba to cover Pope's visit; immediately flee back to U.S. after Lewinsky scandal breaks

February 18, 1998 - Ottawa Citizen confirms that Jennings appeared in those two productions of Orpheus society.

February 21, 1998 - narrates performance of Franz Lehar's operetta The Merry Widow at the National Arts Centre to good reviews :) "Of course I was nervous," Mr. Jennings said. "In fact, they would not allow me to bring real champagne onto the stage. But now I feel on top of the world -- being onstage at the National Arts Centre, in my home town, the day after getting the keys to the city! Well, it was simply great." Last night's performance was a fund-raiser in support of Opera Lyra Ottawa and the National Arts Centre.

June 1, 1998 - "Roone Arledge, as expected, hands off control of the news division today to ABC News president David Westin, who was anointed as his heir apparent in March 1997." (Officially leaves)

June 22, 1998 - Maclean's cover story on Canadian journalists. "For several weeks each summer, and many weekends the rest of the year, he stays at his farm in Quebec's Gatineau Hills, north of Ottawa." "he won the Washington Journalism Review's award for the country's best anchor in each of the five years it was offered" "But in the mid-1990s, ABC, responding to similar moves at NBC, cut back international coverage, and moved to a down-market style. The experiment alienated viewers, and ratings slumped. "We did very badly with it," Jennings says bluntly. "The audience kicked us in the teeth." The program has since restored its former tone and added new touches. The three network news shows are now in a virtual dead heat." "awarded a gold key by the City of Ottawa last year" "When Jennings hosted a 1995 program concerning the atom bomb that America dropped on Hiroshima 50 years earlier, he says, some angry viewers "said 'that son of a bitch should get the hell out,'" and "some sent bus fare, saying 'Go back to Canada.'" Jennings cheerfully did just that -- resting at his farm while the furor played out."

June 23, 1998 - The Ottawa Citizen reports that the Byward market is Jennings' favorite place to visit.

July 30, 1998 - "Peter Jennings Reporting: The American Game takes a 90-minute look at a Little League team in Hagerstown, Md., as it wins its way to the world championship in Williamsport, Pa."

November 3, 1998 - "19-month-old contract negotiations between ABC and the National Association of Broadcast Employees & Technicians, after a 24-hour strike by the union and a lockout by the network disrupted ABC's coverage of Election Night on Nov. 3." "ABC suffered widespread production glitches on its election coverage, from prime time through Nightline. Several Democratic candidates--including newly elected New York Senator Charles Schumer--barred the network from victory parties and denied interviews because of the labor dispute. The candidates' moves, which were encouraged by NABET, forced ABC anchor Peter Jennings to explain to viewers why Democrats were not being interviewed on the air. "

December 1998 - Gavel-to-gavel coverage of impeachment proceedings.

December 24, 1998 - Seattle Times reports that The Century is a best-seller, exceeding expectations.

1999

Throughout 1999, The Century remains on the best-seller lists.

March 29, 1999 - Starts broadcasting The Century. From NYTimes: "It began in 1990, when ABC was a part of Capital Cities Inc., and ended with ABC owned by the Walt Disney Company. It went from a $10 million budget in the early stages to about $25 million in the end. It went through at least three different narrative approaches, three executive producers and various attempts to kill it, and it was entirely reimagined starting last August after David Westin took over as ABC News president and hired Shelby Coffey as his top deputy. All the people interviewed about their memories of World War I have died." "Reporters interviewed more than 500 witnesses to the century's most important events, studied more than 3,000 hours of news film and ended up with a project that will include the book, the ABC News documentary, a 15 1/2-hour documentary that will be shown on the History Channel, a Web site at thecentury.com and efforts at spreading the research to teachers and schools."

April 1999 - Airs THE CENTURY: AMERICA'S TIME on History Channel. 15 1/2-hour, three-week series for the History Channel. Good reviews.

August/September - Guest-edited and contributing to the August/September issue of Capital Publishing's Civilization magazine.

October 18, 1999 - Jennings begins his daily e-mail newsletter. Got hooked online during a chat when abcnews.com debuted. "Jason Dierkes, 23, of Milwaukee, didn't buy it...That amused Jennings, who called Dierkes to say he really does bang out the e-mail each day."

November 21, 1999 - NYTimes does piece on Jennings' Artwalk NY, an annual charity event organized by the Coalition for the Homeless. Jennings has functioned as the event's chairman for the last five years.

December 17, 1999 - NYTimes: "ABC News Trains for 2000 Like Team in a Bowl Game"

December 31, 1999 - ABC 2000

2000

Jan. 5, 2000 - Moderates debate between Gore and Bradley

June 28, 2000 - NY Daily News: "The controversial look at the origins of Jesus averaged 16.6 million viewers, easily beating all other competitors for the night...The show was a hot topic away from the small screen. ABC logged 475 phone calls and 468 E-mails on the special. Some 20,861 people participated in an ABCNews.com chat after the show. And viewers flooded the religious Web site Beliefnet.com with praise and criticism of the special."

July 8, 2000 - Columbus Dispatch reports that "Peter Jennings' news special, The Search for Jesus, was the third- most- watched prime-time TV program last week...It drew more viewers than any other Jennings special in seven years and proved somewhat of a surprise to ABC, which postponed it for a week because the network was concerned the show would have to compete against the NBA Finals."

August 21, 2000 - WPost reports that Jennings is ratings leader for both conventions.

August 25, 2000 - With sister Sarah, dedicates a statue in Byward Market in Ottawa to parents.

September 20, 2000 - NYDaiyNews reports of Jennings' daily viewer e-mail, in which he complains about NBC: "Incidentally, we are among those who are not that keen on being held hostage by NBC (it holds much of the material until prime time), so we'll do a brief Olympic summary at the beginning of the broadcast."

November 7, 2000 - anchors Vote 2000, craziness ensues. Sunday Oregonian: "As dawn approached, and the climactic ending remained out of sight, ABC's Jennings [just before flames invaded his now-rumpled set] peered longingly into the camera, appealing directly to his producer. "Would someone," he implored, "like to give me a little guidance?"" "I'm afraid we're on fire," he said, suddenly, and a new camera angle revealed that he wasn't dreaming: One of the speakers in the ABC studio had burst into flames." USAToday: ""Well, this is a mess, isn't it?" ABC anchor Peter Jennings wrote Wednesday in his daily e-mail promoting ABC's evening news broadcast. "And some of it clearly of our own making. In such an unpredictable election, as it turned out to be, we should have stayed our hand.""

December 25-6, 2000 - Conservatives air their response to Jennings' Jesus documentary with "Who Is This Jesus?"

2001

Summer 2001 - ABC overtakes NBC as ratings leader since Brokaw is on vacation.

June 4, 2001 - Begins "The New Frontier" series (on the southwest U.S./Hispanics) collaboration with TIME

June 5, 2001 - USAToday: "Religion beat falls to ABC's budget ax", Peter Johnson: "under orders to chop $ 15 million from its budget...After seven years on the beat, Peggy Wehmeyer, promoted by ABC as the only full-time network religion correspondent, will leave in October." But Jennings told the Dallas Morning News Monday that Wehmeyer "heightened the news division's consciousness, and heightened mine a lot, too, about the value of religion. Clearly I will miss her a lot. I think we've also come to something of a conclusion that a good reporter can cover religion. So in a period of contraction, we can assign religious stories to others." ABC plans to announce today that it will partner with Beliefnet, a multifaith Web site and media company focusing on religion and spirituality, for polling and religion stories.

July 4, 2001 - Globe does interview with him about his "America Project". In Boston for July 4 celebrations.

September 11, 2001 - 17-hour day.

Controversy

TODO

Find out about when he attended other schools (Carleton), e.g.