Category: The Icons

Fashion Week concludes today, and by now, everyone involved feels it can end soon enough. The last lap kicks off this morning with the climactic runway showdown of the final three contestants of Bravo's "Project Runway," despite the fact that the show's viewers aren't yet aware who the three finalists are. (Our money is on Kara getting cut before the finals; she's overdue.) And it will end tonight with the debut of Karl Lagerfeld's new line in conjunction with his business partner Tommy Hilfiger, followed by "The Kaiser's" appearance on Charlie Rose at 11 p.m. to participate in "A discussion about low-fat diets and disease prevention." Lagerfeld famously lost 80 pounds on a crash diet said to involve horsemeat, and he has, of course, published his own book about his methods. According to The New York Times Magazine, "He also advocates fromage blanc and lobster, provides recipes for quail flambe and advises dieters to skip the gym, cautioning, ''Exercise runs the risk of making you hungry.'' (Though, he writes, you can burn 130 calories an hour sewing, 280 playing piano and, vive la France, 260 shopping.)" We can't wait.

Yesterday was the memorial service for Peter Jennings, held at Carnegie hall and overflowing with a who's who of journalism, taking the morning off to pay respects to a giant of the industry.

There's lots of good coverage of the event which clearly had humor, warmth, and gravitas -- much like the man himself -- and, as usual, you can find the best of it at TVNewser, who attended the event -- it is directly and faithfully rendered; I must confess I choked up at a few points. Here are some highlights:

• Attendees included Dan Rather, Michael Eisner, Jon Stewart, Tom Wolfe, Kurt Vonnegut, Larry King, Bill O'Reilly, Rick Kaplan, Al Sharpton, George Stephanopoulos, Brian Williams, Mike Wallace, Charlie Gibson, Roger Ailes, Rudolph Guiliani, Judy Woodruff, Bob Schieffer, Walter Cronkite, AP prez Tom Curley, Barry Diller, Brit Hume, Connie Chung and CBS News prez Andrew Heyward.
  
• Ted Koppel, Alan Alda, Bob Iger, Charles Glass, ABC World News Tonight senior broadcast producer Tom Nagorski, Coalition for the Homeless president Mary Brosnahan Sullivan, and ABC News president David Westin were among the speakers.
  
• Performers included Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss, Wynton Marsalis and Canadian fiddler Natalie MacMaster.
  
• The Royal Canadian Mounted Police provided an honor guard, which is a nice touch, I think.
  
• On the back of the program, another Canadian touch: A quote from Jennings, "I hate dirty hockey."
  
• Ted Koppel: "Peter was famously, even notoriously, attracted to women. Even so, he only married four of them." Koppel said that he'd always gotten a thrill from Peter's charisma. They had been friends for 41 years.
  
• David Westin: "Peter was a true anchor in every sense of the word."
  
• Former ABC foreign correspondent Charles Glass: "He lived for excellence, as a friend, as a father, as a journalist, as a man... He lived his life, his adult life, as the voice and the face of a television network, but more importantly, he was its conscience."
  
• Tom Nagorski on 'What Would Peter Do?': Back in April when Jennings was first diagnosed, Nagorski's daughter wrote him a get-well card. What would Peter do, Nagorski asks? "He would always find the time to write a note like this," and then read from Peter's response to his daughter: "That was a wonderful, wonderful letter," Peter wrote. "The colors really cheered me up... Whenever an adult is sick, there is nothing better than a person's kindness to make them feel better." Nagorski choked up while reading this. No wonder.
  
• Peter's son Chris and daughter Elizabeth also spoke: "There is no way to express how much I miss my father," said Chris. "Each day is, above all else, a day without him." Elizabeth's voice shook as she read a poem. So sad.

Additionally:
Howard Kurtz [WaPo]
Brian Williams [Daily Nightly]
Peter Jennings Remembered [ABC]
Media Remember a Colleague [The Globe & Mail]

Tomorrow in Colorado iconic gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson will will have a final farewell as his earthly remains are blast from a cannon atop a 150-foot high gonzo-fist-and-dagger monument to scatter down over his Woody Creek, Colorado property. It's hard to find the right appropriately serious tone after writing a sentence like that, which the author would probably have appreciated. Approximately 250 of Thompson's friends will be in attendance at the invitation-only funeral, to remember Thompson in accordance with his wishes, according to his wife:

No crying, no tears, only celebration...a beautiful party. The most amazing people would be there. His friends would celebrate his life. And he was even specific that there would be clinking of ice and whiskey.

Hunter S. Thompson, 1937 - 2005.

Yes, this story has already received a lot of coverage; Anderson, don't be mad. But this week, ABC re-launched "World News Tonight" without Peter Jennings, and the newsweeklies weighed in (even People had him on the cover!), and, well, it has seemed right to mention it one more time. What's amazing is the fact that Peter Jennings has given a jolt of new life to another ongoing story: lung cancer, and trying to beat it. Newsweek has Jennings on the cover asking who is at risk, and within its pages Jonathan Alter notes that "for all his achievements, Jennings' death may prove as influential as his life." His column, or "Appreciation" as it is designated, is beautifully done, and celebrates Jennings as a champion of international reporting even when the ratings showed that viewers wanted something less distant", and commends his "search for truth in a world that doesn't always want to hear it."

In New York Magazine, Dan Rather remembers his friend's generosity and sympathy about his own "dumb-ass mistakes" (which shall go unmentioned), and calls him "both prescient and wise" for his far-reaching reporting:

[H]is wsas a necessary voice of conscience amid an industrywide impulse to cut back on international news. Now it is up to all of us in the journalistic craft to preseve one of the most important parts of his legacy: a commitment to open American eyes to the world, to keep them open, and to share what we have seen.

Over at TVNewser, who probably has the broadest and deepest coverage of any news source outside ABC, I kid you not, Brian Stetler did just that, working overtime to bring together every facet of coverage in a trubute to Jennings, all tied together in his final post, "Remembering Peter: Saying Goodbye" which links his over 50 posts (some of them from us and Garrett Graff at FishbowlDC, who has his own memories of being inspired by Jennings). It's kind of amazing to see how strongly the next generation of journalists feel about Jennings. I'd like to think it bodes well for the future.

That is, I think, what's been nicest about the coverage: the sense of celebrating a life, but also a legacy. As Alter writes:

After all the old video deteriorates, Peter Jennings will be remembered for two things: standing up for international reporting and driving home the risks of smoking. Each, in its own way, has the power to save people's lives. He did, and he will.

Respected, Admired, Remembered: Peter Jennings, 1938 - 2005.

continued...

Peter Jennings went to high school at Lisgar Collegiate Institute in Ottawa, Ontario. As it happens, so did my mom. She dug out her old yearbook -- Lisgar 1955 - 56, her first year and his last -- and we found his photo in homeroom 12A, at age 16. There was just one; the yearbook photographers obviously were not particularly prescient. Who could be, really, at that point; Jennings dropped out of high school at the end of that year. Proof of authenticity in the small print after the jump.

continued...

Yesterday's New York Observer ran an incredibly poignant and thoughtful piece by Rebecca Dana paying tribute to Peter Jennings as a New Yorker. Dana pieces together significant moments from Jenning's broadcasts (such as his September 11th coverage including a still-harrowing transcript of Jennings reporting as the towers actually fell) and celebrates his love of and commitment to this city.

Canadians, though, miss how his eye would turn up toward his homeland -- an appraising eye, as Simon Houpt of The Globe & Mail points out. Houpt, the Globe's New York-based arts correspondent, earlier this week wrote of Jennings' tendency to recruit and mentor talent, calling him "an enthusiastic talent scout for Canadian television reporters seeking the challenge of working in the wilder world of American journalism."

Earlier this week I quoted former ABC reporter Kevin Newman to whom Jennings' bequeathed an American flag with instructions to prize it and always treat the U.S. with affection and respect; Houpt cites additional Jennings protegés including ABC foreign correspondent Richard Gizbert; CBS London correspondent Sheila MacVicar, formerly one of Jenning's foreign correspondents for "World News Tonight"; ABC Miami correspondent Jeffrey Kofman; and former ABC London correspondent Gillian Findlay. Jennings was their elder statesman, said Findlay, watching their backs and giving his ear: "He was the one I would go to if I had a problem or I felt something wasn't being approached correctly or I wanted to run something by. He was the mentor for all of us."

"You guys produce first-rate journalists, and what Peter was able to bring to us was first-hand knowledge of those journalists," ABC News senior VP of worldwide newsgathering Paul Slavin told Houpt (who notes that recent hire Wilf Dinnick, new ABC Jerusalem correspondent, was run by Jennings first).

Houpt, who told me he'd met Jennings a few times over the years, called him "a very gracious fellow who always seemed to have time for other Canadian media" (something that you can't necessarily take for granted). But more important, Jennings also seemed to have time for young journalists, genuinely interested in encouraging great journalism by encouraging (potentially great) young journalists. Per mb editor Elizabeth Spiers:

"[H]e kept talking well after the PR people were giving me dirty looks, my tape recorder had been turned off and he'd been reminded multiple times that "Mr. Cronkite" was waiting to speak to him. He genuinely wanted to help."

Kofman admits to being the grateful recipient of that help, though sometimes exasperating:

"Nothing quite matches those late night phone calls in Baghdad as mortars are exploding within earshot and Peter is on the other end of the line demanding a rewrite of a sentence that doesn't sit with him. But we always knew that Peter never asked us to do anything he himself wouldn't do, or hadn't already done."

Kofman shares more memories after the jump, which make a nice counterpart for Houpt's article, below.

Jennings leaves a Canadian legacy [Globe & Mail]

continued...

TVNewser has this and many, many other heartfelt quotes about Peter Jennings. This is from CNN's Jeff Greenfield, who calls Jennings "the embodiment of what journalism should be." Brian Williams calls him "simply one of the greats...the embodiment of the modern anchor," and on NBC's Today, Tom Brokaw said "Peter, of the three of us, was our prince. He seemed so timeless. He had such élan and style.” Dan Rather put it more bluntly on this morning's GMA tribute: "If Peter was in the area code, I didn't sleep."

Even President Bush made a statement echoing the sense of loss: "A lot of Americans relied upon Peter Jennings for their news. He became a part of the lives of a lot of our fellow citizens, and he will be missed."

Jennings himself was an American, after becoming a citizen in 2003. He was born, however, in Canada, and began his career there before coming to the U.S. to make his mark and rise to become one of the trusted and most beloved faces in journalism (once again, I draw your attention to the outpouring on TVNewser). Canadian anchor Kevin Newman shares this memory about Peter Jennings, who presented a fellow Canadian colleague with an American flag on his final day at ABC news:

After he handed it to me he said, "take this home, treat it with respect, and remember to never take the easy road of defining your Canadian identity by denigrating this great country." He had enormous affection for Americans, and that made him an even greater Canadian.

Other stories about Peter Jennings:

Peter Jennings, Urbane News Anchor, Dies at 67 [NYT]

Peter Jennings, 67 [Globe & Mail]

ABC News Anchor was Voice of the World [WaPo]

In Memory of Peter Jennings [Canada.com]

Career Highlights of Peter Jennings [AP]

Peter Jennings: A life in pictures [Globe & Mail]

The TV Watch; Jennings Delivers His News In Character (April) [NYT]

Peter Jennings died last night of lung cancer. ABC reported the news late last night at 11:41pm. Here is the statement from his family:

"Peter died with his family around him, without pain and in peace. He knew he had lived a good life."

Full transcript of ABC's Sunday Night Special Report, delivered by Charles Gibson, is here.

TV Newser has exceptionally deep and thoughtful coverage, linked below:

Yesterday and today TVNewser has posted a plea to keep Peter Jennings in our thoughts. Judging by the the outpouring of affection and concern when he announced his lung cancer back in April, it's safe to assume he's probably never left them. Even so, it doesn't hurt to go on the record: Peter Jennings, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Dan Rather's speech to the 2005 Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Denver is pretty inspiring, especially coming off the year he's had - and the career he's had. It's a very personal speech, and Rather choked up a few time during it's delivery (courage, Dan), but it also provides an amazing context for some of our favorite debates about journalism, especially framed against the tumultuous events of recent weeks. Here are some highlights -- from a guy who's got one hell of a perspective:

It is my honor to be here today. And may I gently and humbly suggest that you might also feel honored to be here, too -- honored to be a journalist in a country where the role and the rights of the press are enshrined our very Constitution. Furthermore, we might all relish a sense of, if not honor, then privilege -- to be able to make a living doing what we so passionately aspire to do, which is to report the news without fear or favor as a public service to our fellow Americans.

I also stand before you with scars and some still-open wounds -- many of them self-inflicted -- from a professional lifetime of being on the line and in the journalistic trenches. I have had successes, but I have also had my failures and made my mistakes -- have I ever. Being in the business for half a century means you can never be absolutely certain that you don't hold the current record for blown chances and bungled opportunities. And, without question, I have never fully lived up to what I longed and still long to be as a reporter.

Do we still believe the dictum that 'news' is what somebody, somewhere wants to suppress...and all the rest is just advertising? And do we understand that, by rough count, nine out of ten stories coming out of Washington, no matter who is in the White House, no matter which party controls Congress, are advertising -- the products of officials and their imagemakers?

More fiery rhetoric after the jump, but seriously, it's a pretty gripping read, especially his account of his first big investigative story. Check it out on Romenesko here, watch it online (on an NBC affiliate, how ironic) here. Props to TV Newser for bringing it to our attention.

continued...