page_title: Peter Jennings
section_title: Leaving the chair
hierarchical_section_title: Peter Jennings / Life and career / Leaving the chair
caption_attribution_description: English: In July, 1984 when the Democratic National Convention was held in San Francisco, a challenge softball game took place at North Beach Playground (now known as Joe DiMaggio Playground) in San Francisco's North Beach. It pitted Les Lapins Sauvages, the house team for the Washington Square Bar and Grill (featuring Herb Caen at first base) against a pick-up team of national media notables, including Tom Brokaw (Catcher), Bryant Gumble (Third Base), Peter Jennings (Center Field) and Jeff Greenfield (Pitcher). Mario Cuomo, then Governor of New York showed up and, in a spirit of bipartisanship, took an at bat for both sides. He ended up getting a hit and scoring the winning run for the Lapins.
context_page_description: Peter Charles Archibald Ewart Jennings CM was a Canadian-American journalist who served as the sole anchor of ABC World News Tonight from 1983 until his death from lung cancer in 2005. He dropped out of high school, yet he transformed himself into one of American television's most prominent journalists.
  Jennings started his career early, hosting a Canadian radio show at age 9. He began his professional career with CJOH-TV in Ottawa during its early years, anchoring the local newscasts and hosting the teen dance show Saturday Date on Saturdays. In 1965, ABC News tapped him to anchor its flagship evening news program. Critics and others in the television news business attacked his inexperience, making his job difficult. He became a foreign correspondent in 1968, reporting from the Middle East.
  Jennings returned as one of World News Tonight's three anchormen in 1978, and he was promoted to sole anchorman in 1983. He was also known for his marathon coverage of breaking news stories, staying on the air for 15 hours or more to anchor the live broadcast of events such as the Gulf War in 1991, the millennium celebrations in 1999-2000, and the September 11 attacks in 2001.
context_section_description: As he did in 2000, Jennings moderated the 2004 Democratic presidential primary debate, which was held that year at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire. He was noted for questioning General Wesley Clark over Clark's silence over controversial comments made by filmmaker Michael Moore, a supporter of Clark. Moore called then-President George W. Bush a "deserter".
  By late 2004, Brokaw had retired from his anchoring duties at NBC, ceding the reins to Brian Williams; Rather planned to step down in March 2005. Jennings and ABC saw an opportunity to gain viewers, and initiated a publicity blitz touting the anchor's foreign reporting experience. However, despite having almost always reported from the scene of any major news story, Jennings was sidelined by an upper respiratory infection in late December 2004; he was forced to anchor from New York during the aftermath of the Asian tsunami, while his competitors traveled to the region. For Jennings, the situation was agonizing.
  In late March, viewers started noticing that Jennings's voice sounded uncharacteristically gravelly and unhealthy during evening newscasts. On April 1, 2005, he anchored World News Tonight for the last time; his failing health also prevented him from covering the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II. On April 5, 2005, Jennings informed viewers through a taped message on World News Tonight that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer, and was starting chemotherapy treatment the following week. "As some of you now know, I have learned in the last couple of days that I have lung cancer," he said. "Yes, I was a smoker until about 20 years ago, and I was weak and I smoked over 9/11. But whatever the reason, the news does slow you down a bit." Although he stated his intention to continue anchoring whenever possible, the message was to be his last appearance on television.
  Throughout the summer, Charles Gibson, co-host of Good Morning America, and Elizabeth Vargas, co-host of 20/20, served as temporary anchors. On April 29, 2005, Jennings posted a letter on ABCNews.com with an update of his status and expressing thanks to those who had offered him their good wishes and prayers.  In June, Jennings visited the ABC News headquarters, and addressed staff members in an emotional scene in the World News Tonight newsroom; he thanked Gibson for closing each broadcast with the phrase, "for Peter Jennings and all of us at ABC News." During his visit, however, his colleagues noticed he was ill to the point where he could barely speak. He posted another short letter of thanks on July 29, 2005, his 67th birthday.
caption: Peter Jennings (center, blue shirt) while in San Francisco in 1984.
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