Anchors
Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, and Tom Brokaw.
As my wife has pointed out Peter Jennings was only 67 years old. Yeah, yeah, I know that used to be quite old. It used to be my grandfather in his '65 Impala telling me he could hit a major league fastball. Anybody could in his view. It was that breaking stuff that kicked many a big leaguer's ass. Needle or no. But since we're in our mid-40s that doesn't sound so, well, advanced.
But Peter Jennings was one of the 3 white men who brought us up to date each evening as we had dinner or changed for an evening run or game of tennis or, hey, whatever it is that one does between 7 and 730pm each evening across this land. Not to give too much away here but all times will be eastern until further notice.
To be honest Peter was actually the orange one with the Canadian accent. Dan Rather, well, Dan Rather will always be the man as far as I'm concerned. The last of his kind. I can't possibly imagine what it was like to work with the man but to watch him, oh to watch him, especially on election nights was like surfing on a razorblade. Finally, Tom Brokaw, the genial man who floated to the top at NBC with the funny accent and the thin-lipped smile. Capped his career with the Greatest Generation business - which, OK, gets to me. But later on that for now. I'll get to that. For now, for now, Peter Jennings and his departure and with it the literal death of network news. Do me a favor, next time you come across a teen or twenty-something ask them who any of those 3 men were and what they did. They won't know, but we will . We'll know that PJ spent 60 hours on the air after September 11, 2001. We'll know about the hellholes he and Rather in particular made their bones in.
Remember them because the world of TV News nowadays is a pastel imitation of what these men and the organizations they came from used to do. Pastels with screaming matches in between Nantucket retreats.
That oughta do for now.
The vulgarian
As my wife has pointed out Peter Jennings was only 67 years old. Yeah, yeah, I know that used to be quite old. It used to be my grandfather in his '65 Impala telling me he could hit a major league fastball. Anybody could in his view. It was that breaking stuff that kicked many a big leaguer's ass. Needle or no. But since we're in our mid-40s that doesn't sound so, well, advanced.
But Peter Jennings was one of the 3 white men who brought us up to date each evening as we had dinner or changed for an evening run or game of tennis or, hey, whatever it is that one does between 7 and 730pm each evening across this land. Not to give too much away here but all times will be eastern until further notice.
To be honest Peter was actually the orange one with the Canadian accent. Dan Rather, well, Dan Rather will always be the man as far as I'm concerned. The last of his kind. I can't possibly imagine what it was like to work with the man but to watch him, oh to watch him, especially on election nights was like surfing on a razorblade. Finally, Tom Brokaw, the genial man who floated to the top at NBC with the funny accent and the thin-lipped smile. Capped his career with the Greatest Generation business - which, OK, gets to me. But later on that for now. I'll get to that. For now, for now, Peter Jennings and his departure and with it the literal death of network news. Do me a favor, next time you come across a teen or twenty-something ask them who any of those 3 men were and what they did. They won't know, but we will . We'll know that PJ spent 60 hours on the air after September 11, 2001. We'll know about the hellholes he and Rather in particular made their bones in.
Remember them because the world of TV News nowadays is a pastel imitation of what these men and the organizations they came from used to do. Pastels with screaming matches in between Nantucket retreats.
That oughta do for now.
The vulgarian
posted by The Vulgarian @ 9:40 PM
1 Comments:
At 10:52 PM,
Anonymous said…
Where's the vulgarity, Vulgarian?
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