Posted on 11/20/2001 5:54:07 AM PST by anniegetyourgun
A bad weekend for Peter Jennings in Dallas. As he showed on Monday's World News Tonight, a man who considered media coverage to be "unpatriotic" curtly chided Jennings: "Nobody likes you." That rebuke aired about 24 hours after Jennings, moderating a TV panel program on the local ABC affiliate, had the tables turned on him as he was hit with complaints about his September 11 on-air remarks.
WFAA-TV showcased a letter in which a viewer charged: "With the most horrific attack upon the United States since Pearl Harbor unfolding before our very eyes, Mr. Jennings sees fit to bash the Bush administration."
Jennings anchored the November 19 World News Tonight from Dallas as part of a series of stops around the country to look at the post-September 11 mood. For the last story of the program Jennings relayed the opinions he gathered over the weekend during Sunday's tailgate party before the Dallas Cowboys football game. He didn't fare as well as President Bush and Jennings deserves credit for being willing to highlight displeasure with the media and himself. He observed: "The President's approval rating is high in his home state." Man: "George Bush, so far, has done an unbelievable job." Jennings: "Many of us in the media don't get the same high marks." Jennings to a second man: "Can you tell me how the mood is in Dallas these days." The second man: "Nobody likes you." Jennings summarized his beef: "This man told us our reporting in these days is unpatriotic and cannot help the nation get back to business."
Later in the same day as the man castigated him, Jennings moderated a WFAA-TV special about media coverage of terrorism. He soon faced questions about how he treated President Bush in the hours after the terrorist attacks.
Jim Romenesko's MediaNews (http://www.poynter.org/medianews) on Monday highlighted a November 19 Dallas Morning News story about the November 18 panel show. An excerpt from the story by reporter Ed Bark:
ABC anchor Peter Jennings and four local journalists put their news judgments on the line Sunday evening in a live telecast that gave consumers a chance to question the barrage of coverage sent their way since Sept. 11.
Titled Covering Terrorism: Critiquing the Media, the one-hour program was produced by ABC affiliate WFAA-TV (Channel 8) and originated from that station's Dallas studios.
Mr. Jennings mostly moderated give-and-take among 12 questioners and a panel made up of Channel 8 anchor John McCaa; Robert W. Mong Jr., president and editor of The Dallas Morning News; KERA-TV (Channel 13) news director Yolette Garcia; and WBAP-AM (820) talk-show host Mark Davis.
Mr. Jennings came under sharp scrutiny himself, however, after Channel 8 surprised him by bridging a commercial break with videotape of the ABC anchor wondering about President Bush's whereabouts on the day of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The excerpt, played "unbeknownst to me," Mr. Jennings said, was followed by in-studio questioning from Craig Stambaugh of Arlington, who had criticized the anchor in a letter to The News that also was excerpted on Sunday's program.
"With the most horrific attack upon the United States since Pearl Harbor unfolding before our very eyes, Mr. Jennings sees fit to bash the Bush administration," Mr. Stambaugh had written in part to The News.
Mr. Jennings agreed that a "number of people took objection" to his remarks, in which he asked on the air, "Where is the president of the United States?...I know we don't know where he is, but pretty soon the country needs to know where he is."
His comments were "in no way intended to question his [Mr. Bush's] actions," Mr. Jennings said, but rather to express "how important it was for all of us in the country to see the president."
Most of the panelists sided with him, although WBAP's Mr. Davis said the timing of the anchor's remarks was questionable. He said Mr. Jennings seemed to be implying that President Bush was foundering in the early hours of a crisis situation....
To read the story in full, go to: http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment/STORY.ea437538a6.b0.af.0.a4.d967f.html
MRC asks: Did anyone in the metro-Dallas/Ft. Worth area happen to tape this WFAA-TV program?
This article makes it sound like an ambush by WFAA, a well respected, local ABC affiliate. That would surprise me.
I can't stand to listen to Mark Davis (local "conservative" talk show host on Rush station), but after this, I think I may have to give him another chance.
regards
Okiedust said he had been invited to the Dallas townhall because he had a letter published in the Dallas Morning News complaining about media coverage. I pointed him to the Gallup Poll that showed the media with the lowest approval ratings of all public institutions and urged him to ask Jennings about that. Looks like he did!
Go FReepers!!!!!
His comments were "in no way intended to question his [Mr. Bush's] actions," Mr. Jennings said, but rather to express "how important it was for all of us in the country to see the president."
Comrade Jennings needs to realize that it isn't his job to "express how important it was for all of us in the country to see the president." It is his job to report the freakin' news as it happens and leave his opinions, agendas, and editorial comments out. If it wasn't for Fox News I'd go insane
Long thin slimey ones, short fat furry ones, oogly oogly oogly oogly worms.
Although that cannot be disproven, there are several other anchors about whom the same statement could be made without fear of contradiction.
I have it on authority from a Girl Scout who says her troop sings this song all the time.
regards
I hate you. Nobody likes you. Maybe you should go eat worms. ;^)
I saw it and it was everything that has been described here and more. The clip they speak of being aired before a commercial showed PJ in his true color, freely spewing lib garbage about how the American People "need to see the president."
When Sept. 11 was ongoing that Tuesday morning I saw PJ live during the segment that was shown in the clip. He was doing nothing more that trying (as if!) to get the President to reveal his current location.
As far as Mark Davis is concerned, MD is about as conservative as a wind sock.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.