ABC News remembered its legendary anchor Peter Jennings on Friday, ten years after his death.
In a video tribute, Jennings was shown anchoring and reporting from around the world. The video, over four minutes long, showed the late “World News Tonight” anchor’s emotional reporting on 9/11, coverage from the Berlin Wall in 1989, and anchoring New Year’s Eve as the new millennium arrived.
“Peter was a brilliant reporter and deeply passionate about his work,” ABC News president James Goldston wrote in a memo to staff. “No one was more curious about the world. A giant of American journalism, he covered the biggest stories over 40 years at ABC News, from the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement to the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11, countless elections and historic events around the globe.”
Jennings died on August 7, 2005 after a battle with lung cancer. Current ABC News anchor David Muir has frequently called Jennings one of his leading inspirations.
Goldston recounted Jennings’ curiosity, in which he once said he got up every day “thinking that something is going to happen in the world that I didn’t know about yesterday, and I have the opportunity to pass some of that on to the audience.”
“There will never be another Peter Jennings,” Goldston continued. “He was exacting, funny and singular.”
“World News Tonight” will pay tribute to Jenning on Friday’s broadcast.