Alert readers have been asking about the status of Peter Jennings and his battle against lung cancer, first announced last April. It has in fact come up in several media reports recently.
USA Today quoted ABC News host Charlie Gibson last week.
[A]side from surprising staffers at ABC News headquarters in New York a few weeks ago, thinner but in good spirits, [Jennings] has stayed out of sight, refused interview requests and not talked publicly about his illness.That has prompted a steady flow of inquiries from a wide variety of people — the second-place World News Tonight draws 9 million viewers a night — who are curious about how the veteran anchor is doing.
"Everybody asks me," says Gibson, 63, who has been filling in for Jennings along with 20/20 anchor Elizabeth Vargas. "Chemotherapy is a long slog, and there's not much you can say that is new. 'Today was a good day. Yesterday was a bad day.' That doesn't really help, so we've been sparing in what we've said."
But Gibson says Jennings "was quite heavily involved" in last week's coverage of the terrorist bombings in London, which Gibson anchored. Jennings spent 15 years reporting from London for ABC. "It's his turf," Gibson says.
Tim Cuprisin, TV & radio columnist for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, quoted an ABC News producer along the same lines.
Jon Banner, executive producer of "World News Tonight," tells Inside TV & Radio that Jennings remains a regular player in the nightly newscasts - just not on camera."Peter continues to be very involved with the broadcast," says Banner. "In fact, we had a pretty healthy debate about who our person of the week should be.
"He participates often in our 9 o'clock editorial call, which he calls in on from home."
Jennings has dropped by the office a couple times since starting treatment. But there's no word on when he'll return to the broadcast. Banner says: "We have said always that whenever he wanted to come back, if he gave us 45 minutes' notice, we'll make sure we're ready for him.
"He's still involved in treatment, and I think that's where his focus lies."
UPDATE: Peter Jennings has now passed away.
Posted by Alan at July 21, 2005 12:58 AM