Peter Jennings, RIP

Tim Cavanaugh | August 8, 2005

Our own magazine has name-checked him in direct mail campaigns as an example of what we're against, and the arguments against MSM have been rehearsed ad nauseum, but I'm still sad, for two reasons: High school dropouts* have lost their patron saint; and his admission a few months ago that he'd started smoking again after September 11 was one of the few personal 9/11 tie-ins that sounded like it was actually true, rather than another piece of persona-inflation.

* By the way, can anybody explain this weird, churlish tribute from Ted Koppel: "He was a student for the rest of his life even though he had dropped out (of school) so early, not even, because he had dropped out so early. I think if there was one message he would like to leave with young people today it is, 'Don't do what I did.'"

P.S. There's no better way to honor Jennings than to listen to him getting punkt by Captain Janks (or some fellow traveler).