Peter Jennings

The world is very sad about this one, but I'm not actually losing a ton of sleep over his death. I did not by any stretch wish him dead, or even ill. I'm not convinced, however, that we've lost the greatest newsman since Edward R. Murrow, or that his death irreparably lessens the world.

I used to watch Jennings regularly maybe 10 years ago or more. I was not the conservative I am now, and I don't think I was looking for liberal (or any other) media bias. My political philosophy has changed, and an incident reported to me by a friend ended my affection for Jennings. I found out from him as well that Jennings was married at one point to a Palestinian woman, which I think suggests why he might have behaved as he did. I don't care that he was married to her, or that he personally may have chosen to support the Palestinian side of the argument, but (again, according to this friend) it seems to have impacted his journalism.

Jennings did a report on Jerusalem perhaps 8-9 years ago. During the filming, my friend reported, Jennings was on his way through the Old City and heard a great deal of noise coming from the Western Wall area. What it turned out to be was Jews celebrating the holiday of Simchat Torah, when we acknowledge the completion of the yearly cycle of reading the Torah. This friend found himself near Jennings, and invited him to come down and take a look at the dancing & singing. Which the intrepid reporter refused to do, instead reporting there was some kind of "Jewish riot" going on.

Now, I admit I got this story secondhand, but this particular friend is a pretty dependable source. I can't see why he would make up such a convoluted tale, and it plays into what I consider the media's a) inherent bias, and b) its refusal to do the kind of reporting it should do, no matter what the result of that reporting is.

There are plenty of other examples of Jenning's particular liberal bias, and I'll leave it up to others to discuss those. I did not wish him dead, and I'll offer my condolences to his family and friends, but I don't share this particular outpouring of grief.