25 Peter Jennings Quotes on Journalism

Peter Jennings quotes on journalism

2. There are a lot of people who think our job is to reassure the public every night that their home, their community and their nation is safe. I don't subscribe to that at all. I subscribe to leaving people with essentially - sorry it's a cliche - a rough draft of history. Some days it's reassuring, some days it's absolutely destructive.

4. 'I'm a little concerned about this notion everybody wants us to be objective,' Jennings said. Jennings said that everyone - even journalists - have points of view through which they filter their perception of the news. It could be race, sex or income. But, he said, reporters are ideally trained to be as objective as possible. 'And when we don't think we can be fully objective, to be fair.'

6. I have never spent a day in my adult life where I didn't learn something, and if there is a born-again quality to me, that's it.

7. I don't think anybody who looks carefully at us thinks that we are a left-wing or a right-wing organization.

8. We have been criticized, a little bit to my surprise, by people who think I was not enough pro-war. That is simply not the way I think of this role. This role is designed to question the behavior of government officials on behalf of the public. I think people who have done this and all jobs in journalism have believed that.

9. Are we out of step with the administration because we do not comport completely to their political point of view?... So they criticize us for it. It goes with the territory, and if we get a groundswell we begin to look at ourselves.

10. I don't think the public realizes how much soul-searching goes on in news organizations about what is the right thing to do.

13. On 9/11, those of us who do the jobs that I do, flew without a net for hour and hour and hour after end. And then you hope and pray that you've had the experience to be up to it. Because then you're editor, analyst, reporter, correspondent, ringmaster, the whole thing.

16. I think no matter what we cover, people tend to see what we cover through their own particular political or personal prisms. I always ask people to be specific what they're talking about. You can't cover the Middle East - you can't cover American politics - you can't cover America these days without finding people in one place or another taking exception to what we do. I think it goes with the territory. Keeps me, at least I hope, mindful, always that there's at least one other opinion and sometimes a dozen other opinions. And they all bear accounting for. But not everybody is right you know because somebody says, 'well you did X', and you say 'well, maybe X is right in some cases'.

17. My dad was part of the pioneers of public broadcasting in Canada. And he always told me the most important thing you can be in your career is fair. So we all start to see a box and hope that we see the box in the same way. But you recognize in time that people see the box or they see traffic accidents in entirely different ways. So you train yourself over the years to try and give accounting to the variety... and come to some decent place in the middle. But I'm not a slave to objectivity. I'm never quite sure what it means. And it means different things to different people.

20. I've always been very zealous about not invading other people's private spaces.

21. I'm fascinated by everything. There's just too much going on in too many places that I just daren't miss.

23. He seems to me like the last, best example of a tradition that had already started to vanish long before his death - the tradition of Martha Gellhorn and Ed Murrow and Walter Cronkite, people who went and found out what was really happening before they started to talk about it. ~ John Simpson, BBC world affairs editor

24. Inside that tall, handsome, elegant and eloquent exterior - inside that beat the heart of a fierce, but principled competitor... The last person you wanted to see coming on a story, particularly a big story, was Peter Jennings. : How much did I keep an eye on him? Constantly. All the time. ~ Dan Rather, former CBS anchor

25. Peter especially, I think, summarized for all of us the feelings that Dan and I have-the three of us have-when people often ask, 'Are you friends?' And Peter said, 'Yes, we are friends because we don't see each other that often.'... And then he went on to say that we've all made each other better. ~ Tom Brokaw, former NBC anchor

26. No one could ad lib like Peter... You would think that it was all scripted, he was so poetic, but it wasn't. ~ Barbara Walters, ABC News

27. He really did make us raise our sights. ~ Diane Sawyer, Good Morning America co-anchor

28. I didn't always agree with Peter but I deeply admired his hard work, experience and integrity. When I first made the move from print to broadcast journalism, I remember watching him for long periods of time - simply to glean some tips. ~ Wolf Blitzer

30. Peter Jennings will be remembered as one of America's most inspirational and distinguished journalists of our times. Peter Jennings covered many of the most defining moments in the world's post-war history: he witnessed the Berlin Wall coming up in the 1960s and down in 1989, the struggle for equality in South Africa, the Gulf War and most recently, the September 2001 terrorists attacks. ~ Paul Martin, Prime Minister of Canada

31. A lot of Americans relied upon Peter Jennings for their news. He became a part of the life of a lot of our fellow citizens, and he will be missed. ~ George W. Bush, US President

32. I will always remember his insight, his ability to explain the most complicated issues in the clearest form, and his grace and style. He was a tough interviewer but he was always fair... Peter Jennings put his own brand on broadcast journalism. He will be greatly missed. ~ John Kerry, US Senator

33. Peter Jennings was a gentleman. Even when asking the tough, insightful questions, he did so in a gentlemanly fashion. He was able to find the weakness in an argument and point it out, but in a constructive way, not in a 'gotcha' way... On Sept. 11, Peter's journalistic ability, coupled with his humanity, informed and helped comfort us. Like all those watching that day, he too was in pain over the destruction wreaked on his beloved city, but he soldiered on and did so with compassion and eloquence. While that clear, calm voice is silent now, the memory of his articulate and thoughtful presence will live on in our hearts forever. ~ Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City

34. Peter Jennings represented all that was best in journalism and public service. A man of conscience and integrity, his reporting was a guide to all of us who aspire to better the world around us. I learned from him and was inspired by him. ~ Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State

35. Peter Jennings was a great man and the consummate professional. His reassuring presence will be missed by all of us.~ Colin Powell, former US Secretary of State

36. The MRC's archive is packed with documentation of liberal bias from Peter Jennings, who was frequently cited in CyberAlert, but on this day after his passing we'll focus on how a couple of times he acknowledged the media's liberal tilt. ~ Media Research Center