the voice of god

West 66th Street at Columbus Avenue is kind of the rainbow row of ABC news-- 47 West, 77 West, 147 Columbus, the center of all national news on the network. The intersection is also home to a stop for the M66 crosstown bus. The entire time I have worked at ABC this stop has had two identical ads for World News Tonight on either of its glass side. A large-than-life Peter Jennings gazes serenely onto the street with the tagline "When the world doesn't make sense, he does."

Early this morning the memorials had already cropped up, taped, of all places, to the ad at the bus stop. I guess it's the nearest public place to ABC headquarters with Jennings' photo. On one side of the stop you having a living, impromptu memorial, a testament to the impact Jennings had. On the other side of the stop, where an identical ad used to be, it is blank. The ad has already been removed.

I knew ABC would be ambivalent about letting Jennings go, seeing as they still haven't named his replacement, but I had no idea they'd be so naked about it. On one side he lives on as a legend; on the other, out of necessity, we're already moving on.

As was much-discussed during Dan Rather's resignation and Tom Brokaw's retirement, we are reaching the end of the Big Three, the so-called "voice of God" anchors. For over 20 years-- my entire life-- Jennings, Brokaw and Rather were the last word, the single source for whatever information the day had to offer. Their voices, with the impossibly deep and soothing baritone and bass tones, rang out in houses all over the country when 7 o'clock rolled around. Back then, and maybe this is just because I was younger, the news could wait until 7.

I can't claim to have been a Jennings watcher-- during the 9/11 period I refused to watch anyone but Tom Brokaw-- but, especially working at ABC, his passing strikes me hard. The bus poster had it right-- he really could make the world make sense. All of them could, those men who can no longer really be called the Big Three. Of course we live in an age where fewer and fewer people get their news from the nightly broadcast, and most people I like and respect would trust Jon Stewart sooner than any talking head on NBC. It's easy here to romanticize "a more innocent time," when "things were simpler," but in the case of television news it's resoundingly true. Peter Jennings was never a screaming pundit, nor did he invite them on his show, and for that I respect him more than even his most tenacious journalism.

I don't think it's a bad thing that we are moving on from single "voice of God" news sources-- almost everything deserves further analysis than the nightly news can give-- but it's worth it to note its passing. With the last of the three gone, to be replaced by yet another unkown and unremarkable white man, it's a free-for-all for the next top dog status. I'd love it if Bill O'Reilly and Wolf Blitzer left the scene before they even get a chance, but sadly, I don't think it will end that way. Next time something happens on the scale of 9/11, the ABC anchor can report from the roof all he wants, but nobody may even pay attention. They'll have their own sources and their own way to interpret, and I can only hope that even one of them can be as reliable as Peter Jennings.