Posted on 10/31/2004 3:18:28 AM PST by Pharmboy
The commercials are as patriotic as those created for any presidential candidate. As wistful piano chords provide the soundtrack, a parade of Rockwellian images - front porches, mothers and children, construction workers and an American flag - passes by.
These ads, however, were not created for President Bush or Senator John Kerry, but for Peter Jennings, the longtime anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight.''
And they are a result of an extremely rare moment in television news. On Dec. 2, for the first time in 21 years, one of the big broadcast networks will replace the anchor of its evening newscast, when Tom Brokaw yields the top-rated "NBC Nightly News'' to Brian Williams. That transition is expected to touch off a period of anchor shopping among some of the nearly 25 million viewers who still watch the evening news on the broadcast networks each night.
Seeking to reclaim the ratings lead he lost seven years ago, Mr. Jennings, 66, is making the most of the changing of the guard, and in a manner unusually personal and pointed for the typically clubby competition of the network news divisions. Mr. Jennings has taken to the road to interview voters and candidates, and meet advertisers, in electoral swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, which are also battlefields in the ratings contest between the nightly news programs of NBC and ABC.
And while the ads created for - and featuring - Mr. Jennings do not mention his principal opponent, the tag line, in the eyes of some in the industry, appears to be an unmistakable shot across the anchor desk.
"Trust,'' the narrator intones, "is earned.''
Mr. Jennings deferred questions about the marketing campaign to ABC News management. And with tens of millions of dollars of advertising at stake - and the boasting rights of first place - Jon Banner, the executive producer of "World News Tonight,'' makes no apologies for the promotional campaign.
"This is an opportunity for us to brag about the strengths of our broadcast,'' Mr. Banner said, referring to the credibility Mr. Jennings's long career as a correspondent and anchor provides. "It's an opportunity we don't want to pass up.''
Asked if the ads, which began running in July, were aimed at the 45-year-old Mr. Williams, a former White House correspondent whose main experience as an anchor is on NBC's cable channels, Mr. Banner said, "You can read into it whatever you want.''
Mr. Jennings began a trip earlier this month in Missouri, where he addressed a luncheon audience of 1,000 at a rodeo-and-livestock show in Kansas City. He then spent parts of the four-day trip aboard a customized bus previously used by the pop singer Justin Timberlake, which is now painted red, white and blue and emblazoned with stars and stripes and the ABC logo.
Such reporting trips, which nicely dovetail with efforts to energize the base of advertisers and affiliates, have long been a part of an anchor's responsibility.
But Mr. Jennings did not embark on such elaborate trips so close to the election in 2000. And ABC News management planned his recent tours with the upcoming anchor change clearly in mind.
In a late-night interview between Cleveland and Pittsburgh on this most recent trip in mid-October, his tie loosened and a plastic foam cup filled with white wine before him, Mr. Jennings took pains to explain his ambivalence about these double-edged trips.
"I accept that management wants me to be out there improving the circulation status of the broadcast,'' he said. "But if I were to start thinking that, it would have a horrible effect on my behavior.''
But any doubts that these tours served more than journalistic duty were put to rest by his display of retail politicking at a country club outside Pittsburgh. As he moved through a crowd of about three dozen grocery store owners, bathroom remodelers and furniture store owners - local advertisers or prospective advertisers all - he queried each about business, sometimes jotting notes in the slim reporter's notebook that is always wedged in the waistband of his pants.
No detail is squandered. "We started off talking about carpets,'' Mr. Jennings said, referring by name to one small-business owner sitting at a front table, before segueing into a conversation about the economy and his travels through Egypt.
Mr. Williams, of course, has not accumulated the résumé or foreign postings of Mr. Jennings. Being 21 years younger can account for much of that discrepancy. But Mr. Williams has followed a different career path than Mr. Jennings, and the tag line of the ABC ads - however indirectly - attempts to exploit that difference.
Mr. Jennings dropped out of high school in his native Ontario at the age of 17 to become a journalist, and spent more than a decade serving as a foreign correspondent for ABC before being handed the anchor chair on Sept. 5, 1983, the same night Mr. Brokaw began his run. (Mr. Jennings became an American citizen in the summer of 2003.)
Mr. Williams, who had not been posted permanently as a foreign correspondent, has spent the better part of a decade as an anchor.
"I've only met Brian a couple of times,'' Mr. Jennings said. "I've watched him on the air. He's a very good broadcaster.
"As I look at Brian coming on,'' Mr. Jennings added, "I think a little bit about myself at a younger age. The anchor job is quite restraining.''
He continued, "I wonder if in time he'll come to wish he spent more time on the road.''
NBC executives, who declined to comment on the ABC ads, did point out that when Mr. Williams has substituted for Mr. Brokaw in recent years, he has consistently held Mr. Brokaw's lead over Mr. Jennings. They also noted that so far this fall season, Mr. Brokaw's lead had grown to more than a million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Dan Rather and "CBS Evening News'' are a distant third.
Mr. Jennings acknowledged that however much he is looking forward to squaring off against Mr. Williams, it will take time for the rivalry to rise to the level of the one he's been part of for more than two decades. "Do I like beating Brokaw and Rather?'' he asked. "Are you kidding?''
Mr. Jennings emphasized that he was speaking much more in a journalistic sense than a business one, and cited, as an example, his status as the lone network news anchor inside the courtroom for Saddam Hussein's arraignment in Baghdad.
But if he and "World News Tonight'' were to overtake NBC in the ratings - particularly among the 25-to-54-year-old demographic coveted by advertisers - the broadcast could increase its more than $120 million in annual advertising revenue by as much as $20 million, according to one network official.
And it's not just the network that has a stake in the outcome.
Those ABC affiliates in markets where Mr. Jennings has run second to Mr. Brokaw are anxiously anticipating the halo effect that could extend to their local news programming should he claim the top spot.
Robert G. Bee, the director of sales at WTAE, the ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh, said he was confident that if "World News Tonight'' moved from No. 2 to No. 1 in the 6:30 p.m. slot, the station's 6 p.m. local newscast would attract more viewers and pull in as much as a third more in advertising revenue.
Mr. Jennings's contract, which pays him an estimated $10 million annually, is scheduled to expire next year. Although David Westin, the president of ABC News, declined to reveal whether a contract extension had been discussed, he did say, "I expect him to be the anchor of 'World News Tonight' for several years to come.''
In the interview aboard the bus, Mr. Jennings declined to speculate about his future in a job he clearly still loves. And even if the end may not necessarily be near, Mr. Jennings has begun to express nostalgia for the way things used to be for himself, Mr. Brokaw and Mr. Rather.
"I cannot imagine that in the future Brian or anybody else in these chairs will have as good a time as the three of us have had in the last 20 years,'' he said.
WHAT? The American flag being used to promote Peter Jennings? What happened to the maple leaf? Has Toby Keith gotten word of this?
So is DIStrust.
For some reason, Jennings was granted U.S. citizenship a few years ago. God only knows why. Probably one of those "brilliant" decisions made at Foggy Bottom.
Pine on, Jennings, for the "good old days" when you could spew your B.S. and the people would lap it up like spilled honey...
The real surprise will be when Fox rolls out Brit's show ..a half hour version, off the cable channel and onto the Fox network..to directly compete. THis has been in the works for several years..
During the Battle for Iraq, ABC gave the enemy both
US troop movements and limitations of US weapons.
Jennings and ABC are traitors. Halperin and the rest work for Soros and the DNC.
Terrorism encouraged, aided, and supported by ABC and its evil antiAmerican anchors and owners.
In this setting, exactly how corrupt is ABC?
CASE STUDY
Halperin Memo Dated Friday October 8, 2004
"It goes without saying that the stakes are getting very high
for the country and the campaigns - and our responsibilities become quite grave
I do not want to set off (sp?) and endless colloquy that none of us have time for today
- nor do I want to stifle one.
Please respond if you feel you can advance the discussion.
The New York Times (Nagourney/Stevenson) and Howard Fineman
on the web both make the same point today: the current Bush attacks
on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way
that goes beyond what Kerry has done.
Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his (ed. ABC-supported) efforts to win.
We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest,
but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides
"equally" accountable when the facts don't warrant that.
I'm sure many of you have this week felt the stepped up Bush efforts
to complain about our coverage.
This is all part of their efforts to get away with as
much as possible with the stepped up, renewed efforts
to win the election by destroying Senator Kerry at least partly through distortions.
It's up to Kerry to defend himself, of course.
But as one of the few news organizations with the skill and strength to help voters evaluate what the
candidates are saying to serve the public interest.
Now is the time for all of us to step up and do that right. "
And who is Halperin?
BREAKING:
Halperin's father is none other than Morton H. Halperin,
head of [Election manipulator] George Soros' Open Society Policy Center.
You have got to be wearin' pajamas! That is ONE WORTHY POST!
Jennings gave an interview to a local KC radio show host while here. Heard him say (can't remember his exact words) that there was very encouraging news from Europe. Said popularity of President Bush was way down but respect for the U.S. was up. That's when I changed stations.
I don't give a rat's behind what Europe or Jennings thinks.
The MSM has lost approx. 50% of their viewers in 15 yrs. The decline appears to have accelerated until the Terror attack and briefly picked up in the 2 following yrs., due IMO, the to War (mis)coverage. Now, even during a bitter Pres election the loss of viewers id assuming it's natural course. These guys are headed to oblivion the increasing acceleration towards no viewers has got to sink into their demented brains along the way. It is the Titanic tilting towards the heavens....not a minute too soon!
Besides praying for our President every day, I also pray for the total destruction of MSM. I want them to know what it feels like to be trashed every day. I say good riddance to Peter Jennings, and sincerely hope that Rather and Brokaw soom follow!
God Bless President Bush!
EXCELLENT point.
It looks like ABC news is at the bottom of the heap. It comes as no surprise to me. I've never liked that jerk Peter Jennings. He's just a Canadian high school drop out who is deranged enough to believe he's smarter than everyone else.
The demographics of network news viewers are such that loads of them kick the bucket every year.
On top of the viewer mortality, when Brokaw leaves I hope most of his audience departs too, leaving Jennings the master of the (greatly diminished) network news universe.
And Peter will soon learn to appreciate this old saw: In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
They'll go back to being patriotic as soon as the elections are over. One of the classic tactics of the left is to try to build up viewership by appearing non-partisan during times when the citizens aren't voting. Rest assured, they'll be as fair as fair can be in 2005, but by the mid-term elections in 2006, they'll be right back in full Bolshevik bury the dead bodies of the Rats mode.
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