On Peter Jennings Lung Cancer Announcement
A big thanks to Crooks and Liars for locating and uploading the video of Peter Jenning's announcement last night of his lung cancer. ABC News, if you can believe it, is charging for the video.
The video is sad. Jenning's voice is scratchy, and he tries to put a brave face and display a stoic outlook on his condition. One of the things that has made Jennings (and Brokaw) superior anchors is that they never made the news about them. Their personalities really didn't come through in their newscasts. It was always about the story. Even in this announcement, Jennings half sounds like he's reporting on his condition. He extends compassion to others who are battling cancer and tells us that one is a survivor from the moment of diagnosis. He doesn't allow himself even a moment of self-pity on the air--although his last line has a touch of self-effacing humor to it.
Some doctors are speculating that his cancer must be advanced because he is going right into chemotherapy without first having surgery. I suspect only Jenning's doctors know for sure how advanced his conditon is. Lung cancer is serious, but there are survivors.
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