"... with the emergency news that Peter Jennings has died and I must get right on it," I write in the comments to a post I put in 2005.
We were talking about a post that had my ink drawings of Van Gogh and of a museum guard yelling at a baby who'd sat down on the ledge that is there to keep people from standing to close to the paintings, and of the baby muttering "Bummer, bummer, bummer."
I thought that was pretty amusing, but the commenter was all: "Ann, if you're still up, Peter Jennings' death was just announced 15 mins ago. I have a link in my blog, but so far, only lgf have the story. Since you're doing Glenn's blog this week, it seems you're going to be doing extra-duty on the obit watch -- they'll start to pour any second."
The notion that I'm here to hop to it when there's breaking news... it was absurd then and it's absurd now. Everyone knew Peter Jennings was dying. It was one of those death-watch situations. And yet it seemed important to some people to burst in and be first! when the dying man is actually dead. Why?!
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But is he still dead?! Check on that and let us know right away!
And yet it seemed important to some people to burst in and be first! when the dying man is actually dead. Why?!
If you're not first it's not news.
Tom! Tom! I was hoping you'd say "first!"
Wasting the poll position by declaring that your first is one of the most annoying commenting habits in the world of popular blogs, but here it actually would have made sense. Ah, well.
Fourth!
I like Ann's attitude in blogging only what interests her. Much of the topics are of interest to me. Others are of interest to other. But all of them are of interest to her.
“Since you're doing Glenn's blog this week, it seems you're going to be doing extra-duty on the obit watch -- they'll start to pour any second."
It was one of those death-watch situations. And yet it seemed important to some people to burst in and be first! when the dying man is actually dead. Why?!
Well, it is called Instapundit.
Many?
I'm consistently bemused when commenters break into a thread and post something completely off-topic. Especially with a pasted link.
???
News used to be monitoring. That was the pull of the all news all the time stations.
I don't know what they're doing now - all narrative all the time, monitoring narrative blockbuster developments probably.
Who was Peter Jennings? Was he some chore you expected me to do without asking?
It is amusing to see commenters asking, sometimes demanding, that you, the blogger, post on a specific topic. Glad to see you are amused too. Tempting, I suppose, to respond with: get your own blog.
She was trying to help you. Is that really "so weird"?
Could it be considered "so weird" that you're revisiting this little item 16 years later?
Lemme break in here with some further breaking news - Peter Jennings is still dead.
Generallisimo Francisco Franco is still dead, too. Despite some eyewitness reports, on the other hand, Joe Biden is still alive.
We exist in a perpetual “OMG, look at this!” world. All sensationalism all the time.
Lgf? Low grade fever?
Blogging and our time line peers deaths were all so new in 2005. Blogs being launched larva and newscasters being bugs on the windshield of the internet.
"Well, it is called Instapundit."
I read that to mean he can do *punditry* quickly. *Reporting* the news is different from offering opinions. A man life is what it is, and you can punditize about it whenever you want. His dying isn't a call to suddenly have an opinion. The man had already stepped down from all of his work. It was long past time for any instant punditry.
I don't even recall that he died.
I did find this blog via Glenn's blog.
"She was trying to help you. Is that really "so weird"?"
It's not weird to want to help. It's weird to be a reader of this blog and to think that bossing me about blogging about The Death of Peter Jennings is weird. To put it nicely. I could have called it "creepy." Or "impudent."
"Glad to see you are amused too."
I used to be disgusted. But now I try to be amused.
You could have called it all sorts of things. Calling it "bossing" is weird. She was trying to help you. She thought it might help you to have that news promptly.
How about calling it "breaking in" to your blog thread, when there was only one previous commenter on there, and that had been nine hours previous?
I, for one, am certainly happy that you aren’t blogging about the Chauvin trial.
I sometimes hope to hear the professor's views on some issue in the news, usually I'm looking for the legal take on a legal issue that the media has done its usual (unsatisfying and uninformative) horse race coverage. But I know she doesn't like being asked, so I refrain. I quietly wait and hope.
Peter Jennings is dead?
Calling it "bossing" is weird. She was trying to help you.
Really? Let's look at the help...
Since you're doing Glenn's blog this week, it seems you're going to be doing extra-duty on the obit watch -- they'll start to pour any second.
When is suggesting "you're going to be doing extra-duty" the same as "trying to help you"?
Are you one of those people that think washing dishes and doing laundry is helpful because it builds character? If so, I know a woman that will help you.
Since news is no longer news I don't watch it. I've learned some breaking news here a couple of times...
Ya know, if you're gonna put this thing out there it's going to take on a life of it's own. You can fight it, I suppose...
Are Canadian cigarettes more deadly than US ones? They also have all those gruesome images on them to get you to stop smoking. I think it does the opposite. They become more like baseball cards. Collect the whole set!
I caught the Elvis Costello reference. Well done!
I remember when i didnt think jenningswas a palestinian shill, thats before i saw the footage from munich.
Hey, it was an ironic "first!"
---When is suggesting "you're going to be doing extra-duty" the same as "trying to help you"?
When it's someone who mentions she has a blog, too, and obviously identifies with what Althouse is doing.
obviously identifies with what Althouse is doing.
Ah, identification politics. So because vbspurs thinks she identifies what Althouse is doing, then it means that is what Althouse is doing? Because it seems clear from Althouse, then and now, that's not what Althouse does. I mean, I get it. You may see things from vbspurs perspective, but this is Althouse blog and her comment section. Is it too much to ask to have empathy for Althouse perspective?
Even more pointless to revisit the matter today.
It was you Kai, wasn't it?
Remember Generalissimo Francisco Franco?
Once you have people addicted to all the free ice cream, then they want to choose the flavor.
“ and to think that bossing me about blogging about The Death of Peter Jennings is weird. ”
That should say: and to think that bossing me about blogging about The Death of Peter Jennings is helping.
Impupundit
I suspect it's been taken, but I'm too lazy to duckduckwent.
“ You could have called it all sorts of things. Calling it "bossing" is weird. She was trying to help you. She thought it might help you to have that news promptly. How about calling it "breaking in" to your blog thread, when there was only one previous commenter on there, and that had been nine hours previous?”
It’s threadjacking.
It’s not an open thread. Doesn’t matter if there are no other comments.
"I used to be disgusted. But now I try to be amused."
A LHC fan, I see : )
No comment on the thread...your blog, your rules.
Ann reminds me of my godmother that died many years ago and would be over 100 years old. Had been a school teacher before World War II, moved to the big city and worked as an accountant. Married a WWII veteran - both were in their mid-30s. Settled in our small town. They were not blessed with children, but she was from an era where married women did not work if their husbands earned enough. She did some substitute teaching gigs, but otherwise she was fully engaged in community and church volunteer activities, several clubs, and her neighbor's children.
She had fascinating stories to tell. But they had to be shared at her pace - could not be forced. Oftentimes a current event would trigger a story.
vbspurs is one of the old commenters I miss.
No doubt Jennings was a hero to vbspurs, so she was excited to be in on the death.
Yes, I know its annoying.
There's a certain internet type that must always break into every internet discussion and announce or link to IMPORTANT CURRENT EVENT. I've never been able to understand why. Do they think we all don't have google? OR that we only read the ONE thread or Blog and won't know about IMPORTANT CURRENT EVENT unless they tell us?
But then there are so many annoying types aren't there? There's the person on a sports/Entertainment thread who MUST talk about serious news because "why we talking about frivolous stuff when XYZ is happening?"
Peter Jennings like Rather and Brokaw were only important because the networks had a monopoly on TV news. As shown by their post-retirement comments both of these characters were actually dunderheads. The same is true of Kooky Roberts, George Will, and braying ass Sam Donaldson. Everyone in the 80s and early 90s knew these clowns and listened to them because they were on TV. Now, we have choices and we don't have to care.
The commenter probably assumed you wanted to blog his death early. That’s not malicious or creepy. It’s not malicious or creepy to have a wrong idea of your priorities.
I don’t recall seeing AA previously use the formulation “was all” in lieu of “said” to describe speech, as in “the commenter was all: "Ann, if you're still up . . . .”
“She was all,” and the related “she was like,” usually appear in oral descriptions of oral statements by members of later generations, often in situations of heightened emotion.
No criticism implied—on the contrary, as I enjoy AA’s close attention to the use of language, I wondered whether the deployment of the phrase was a deliberate departure from her customary style, or whether she was just like all PO’d with the commenter.
Peter Jennings was a talking head.
Perhaps, we can start a preference cascade!
Errata: Open internal quotation marks.
"impudent."
So much becomes clear now.
"The commenter probably assumed you wanted to blog his death early. "
WHy would they assume that? And why assume Althouse doesn't know about Jennings death?
LOL, stevew. My alter ego as Victoria. I fit it in when I'm not doing Howard.
Wait, can I rephrase that please?!
these characters were actually dunderheads
Jennings was worse than a dunderhead. As narciso pointed out, a shill for the Palestinians, as reflected in his romantic involvement with the horrid Hanan Ashrawi. A generally nasty person, if I may speak ill of the dead.
Not to speak ill of the dead but Peter Jennings was a Tool with a capital T.
"It’s threadjacking.
It’s not an open thread. Doesn’t matter if there are no other comments."
It's odd you'd highlight this as it happens a lot and you're going way back and being bothered by it. Some thread hijackers got prized pet attention for their regular doing of this in ways that were seen as amusing.
Seems more like the commenter than the comment is at issue here. As MadisonMan noted she was a very regular commenter and there was a lot more bonhomie in those days
Peter Jennings died in 2005? Why is that news in a article of 2021? He was one of the last dying breeds of monopolistic nightly news anchors [ABC] who was mediocre at best and felt the heat of competition before he passed away in 2005. So I'm perplexed about a blogger and AA bring up his supposed death as a current event? Did I misread AA's thread?
I always got him confused with Charlie Rose. Were there any metoo allegations against Peter? I bet he was more active than Cronkite in that area of human endeavor Jennings fame has really petered out. This is probably the first time that anyone here has thought of him in years....
Before my time! Not Jennings, or his dimwit blow-dried peers, but the complaint about topic-nudging.
I'm with the Prof.
Narr
But you knew that
She had her own blog for a while sundries she was in medical school for a spell, probably practicing now im guessing
>>Once you have people addicted to all the free ice cream, then they want to choose the flavor.
This is so true. I used to have a candy bowl near my desk at work. I'd stock it with one of those big bags from Costco with all the little chocolate bars in it.
After a while, I started getting complaints...
"I don't like any of those... Milky Way bars are my favorite." To which I replied "Great, buy a bag and add it to the bowl." This was met with a look that said "Why would I buy my own candy???"
Worse still was the suggestion that I "...lock up the candy at night. The cleaning staff are just helping themselves."
All of my teammates were very highly compensated IT folks. The idea that some minimum wage person was taking their FREE candy made them angry.
In a similar vein... Years ago, when I worked in retail, the owner of the store told me that if you give somebody something for nothing, that's the value they will put on it, nothing, regardless of what it's really worth.
I think of this every time some woke person goes off on a rant about how bad the USA. They've been given, for free, the best country, the most freedoms, and strongest economy in the world, and they treat it as worthless.
As I tell my kids, you can vote yourself into socialism, but you'll have to shoot your way back out.
She was trying to help and also wanted people to know that she was up on the latest happenings in the news.
You like to largely ignore your commentators and hardly ever respond when they ask you perfectly reasonable questions. Which is your right, it's your blog blah blah. But to shame someone 15 years after the fact - and not even give her the chance to explain herself? Weird .. and a bit mean too. Having a bad day?
It’s not an open thread. Doesn’t matter if there are no other comments.
That's what I found weird, that there were only five comments in an Althouse thread, and one of them was from much later. It's been a long time since the comment threads here were that small.
Blogger Assistant Village Idiot said...
"Peter Jennings is dead?"
I'm certain this is urgently concerning to someone.
Blogger Kai Akker said...
"LOL, stevew. My alter ego as Victoria. I fit it in when I'm not doing Howard.
Blogger Kai Akker said...
"Wait, can I rephrase that please?!"
Nope. Now you get an bright yellow vest and a spot waiting for the short bus.
Were there any metoo allegations against Peter?
No, he passed before that was a thing. But there probably would have been, is my guess. Besides the fact that he left his wife for a much younger colleague earlier in his career, the ABC News room was a hothouse. My then fiance worked there as a desk assistant and eventually briefly as a producer. The place was crawling with very attractive young people in such roles, most hoping to move up to on-air or production jobs, and powerful and lascivious older men. First time I went in there, she introduced me to Peter Jennings, who never went to college, and he asked me where I had gone to college. He made a show about not being too impressed impressed (he fetishized the Ivy League), and looked at my lady and said well at least you've got great taste in women.
Slightly risque humor notwithstanding, my wife really liked him, and he seemed very popular with all the young ones there. Watching the production was a lot of fun: you had the main producer and Peter yelling, cursing up a storm at one another and at colleagues/subordinates, frantically re-wording scripts and re-ordering segments, and on a dime Jennings would turn to the camera and give his pleasant smile and greeting as they went live.
I don't know what it was like in other newsrooms, but Jennings was not just a well-coiffed news reader, he was pretty deeply involved in the show's production, story selection and even some of the investigative reports.
People thread jack to talk about a deeply meaningful, timely event in real time with their friends. You invite people into your plastic slipcovered living room for a bull session and it's distressing that people get too familiar and eat chips and put their feet up. It's a natural externality of a successful blog.
“Who was Peter Jennings? Was he some chore you expected me to do without asking?”
One of the prettier news readers on network TV. Left wing whack job, but still looked and sounded good going it.
Peter Jennings was a Tool with a capital T.
And Canadian.
@Ann
Didn't you recount a story here about the death of John Lennon, and you going into the Law Review office and either expecting or wanting to talk about it, but no one else seemed to want to? The death of people can affect people differently. Though back in 2005 the blogosphere was still a relatively new thing. And I suspect that commenter thought it was going to be a replacement for traditional media, and since traditional media would would run multiple obituary stories on Peter Jennings, the blogosphere ought to run stories on it as well. It was odd to see Little Green Footballs referenced.
I'm still disappointed that Althouse made no mention of the death of Chuck Yeager. But, to each her own brand of celebrity, I guess.
I despise and detest Peter Jennings, and his little dog Brian Williams too.
That’s a pretty good comment by Howard.
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