ABC News' Jennings reveals lung cancer
ABC's Jennings tells colleagues he has lung cancer
April 6, 2005
NEW YORK -- ABC anchor Peter Jennings has been diagnosed with lung cancer but will remain on the broadcast while he undergoes treatment in New York.
Jennings, 66, hadn't been on the air since Friday evening's "World News Tonight," even as ABC News and other news-gathering organizations geared up for the Pope John Paul II story. ABC News said only that Jennings wasn't feeling well. He informed the "World News Tonight" staff of his illness Monday afternoon.
"I will continue to do the broadcast," Jennings wrote in an e-mail to ABC News staff Tuesday morning. "There will be good days and bad, which means that some days I may be cranky and some days really cranky."
ABC News said Jennings will undergo outpatient treatment in New York beginning next week. Jennings, who planned to anchor the coverage of the pope's funeral from Rome, won't be traveling there this week.
"It's both Peter's and my expectation that he will anchor 'World News Tonight' during the period of treatment to the extent he can do so comfortably," ABC News president David Westin said. "But we also should expect him to be off the broadcast from time to time, depending on how he feels."
"Good Morning America" co-host Charlie Gibson, who has been anchoring "World News Tonight" from Vatican City, and Elizabeth Vargas have been tapped as substitutes.
"Peter's been given a tough assignment. He's already bringing to this new challenge the courage and strength we've seen so often in his reporting and in anchoring ABC News," Westin said.
The news of the anchor's illness shocked an industry that had been abuzz with speculation about why Jennings hadn't been involved in ABC News' coverage of the pope's death. Jennings, who had been battling what had been termed an upper-respiratory infection at the beginning of the year, didn't travel to tsunami-ravaged South Asia in January on the advice of his doctors. Jennings is a former smoker but hasn't had a cigarette in years.
Tom Brokaw, the former NBC News anchor, said he was concerned about his old friend.
"I'm heartbroken, but he's also a tough guy. I'm counting on him getting through this very difficult passage," Brokaw said Tuesday.
Brian Williams, who took over for Brokaw, said from Rome: "It will take more than this to scare the man I know. Our industry will not be the same until he has permanently returned to his broadcast. He will tackle this as he has every challenging assignment during his life and career: by facing it head-on."
Jennings, who said the diagnosis was a surprise, wrote that almost 10 million Americans are living with cancer. "I am sure I will learn from them how to cope with the facts of life that none of us anticipated," he wrote.
Jennings, 66, hadn't been on the air since Friday evening's "World News Tonight," even as ABC News and other news-gathering organizations geared up for the Pope John Paul II story. ABC News said only that Jennings wasn't feeling well. He informed the "World News Tonight" staff of his illness Monday afternoon.
"I will continue to do the broadcast," Jennings wrote in an e-mail to ABC News staff Tuesday morning. "There will be good days and bad, which means that some days I may be cranky and some days really cranky."
ABC News said Jennings will undergo outpatient treatment in New York beginning next week. Jennings, who planned to anchor the coverage of the pope's funeral from Rome, won't be traveling there this week.
"It's both Peter's and my expectation that he will anchor 'World News Tonight' during the period of treatment to the extent he can do so comfortably," ABC News president David Westin said. "But we also should expect him to be off the broadcast from time to time, depending on how he feels."
"Good Morning America" co-host Charlie Gibson, who has been anchoring "World News Tonight" from Vatican City, and Elizabeth Vargas have been tapped as substitutes.
"Peter's been given a tough assignment. He's already bringing to this new challenge the courage and strength we've seen so often in his reporting and in anchoring ABC News," Westin said.
The news of the anchor's illness shocked an industry that had been abuzz with speculation about why Jennings hadn't been involved in ABC News' coverage of the pope's death. Jennings, who had been battling what had been termed an upper-respiratory infection at the beginning of the year, didn't travel to tsunami-ravaged South Asia in January on the advice of his doctors. Jennings is a former smoker but hasn't had a cigarette in years.
Tom Brokaw, the former NBC News anchor, said he was concerned about his old friend.
"I'm heartbroken, but he's also a tough guy. I'm counting on him getting through this very difficult passage," Brokaw said Tuesday.
Brian Williams, who took over for Brokaw, said from Rome: "It will take more than this to scare the man I know. Our industry will not be the same until he has permanently returned to his broadcast. He will tackle this as he has every challenging assignment during his life and career: by facing it head-on."
Jennings, who said the diagnosis was a surprise, wrote that almost 10 million Americans are living with cancer. "I am sure I will learn from them how to cope with the facts of life that none of us anticipated," he wrote.
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