An ABC News special tonight hosted by Peter Jennings is the latest example of the anchorman’s inability to comprehend his biased reporting, says a former colleague.
 Peter Jennings (Photo: ABC News) |
“How to Get Fat Without Really Trying,” airing at 8 p.m. Eastern time, reflects Jennings’ belief his calling as a journalist is to protect the “peasantry in America,” charges former ABC News correspondent Peter Collins, according to CNSNews.com.
“It’s not a one-side attack because in their minds, they have convinced themselves that this is the source of the problem,” Collins told CNSNews.com, “and in order to save the peasantry in America from obesity, it’s their obligation to present these facts the way they present them.”
ABC News said in a news release the obesity program will reveal why “much of the problem with the American diet is the direct result of federal government policy and food industry practices.”
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Now retired from journalism, Collins reported on Central America during the 1980s for ABC’s “World News Tonight” and “Nightline.”
Collins said he has not viewed tonight’s program, but the description provided by ABC indicates it’s more of the same. He thinks Jennings and his colleagues are blind to their leanings.
“When he and his producer load and tilt a story, you can argue it’s leftist bias, but it’s just as effective to say they left out basic facts because they couldn’t see them or they are incompetent to see them,” Collins told CNSNews.com.
Collins said he believes Jennings “genuinely thinks of himself as a nobleman doing public good.”
“I know that sounds preposterous, but that’s the attitude,” he said.
An encounter with Jennings in the late 1980s illustrates that thinking, Collins said. After walking out of the anchorman’s office in New York City, Collins remarked to the secretary how nice Jennings had been.
“And she looked at me with kind of beatific smile and said, ‘Yes, it’s his sense of noblesse oblige,'” recalled Collins, noting the French term means an obligation of those in power to be honorable.
Collins pointed out Jennings is the son of Charles Jennings, who was vice president of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Peter, born and raised in Canada, hosted his own radio show on CBC at the age of 9.
Collins said presenting the full picture or a balanced story doesn’t appear to concern Jennings.
“Jennings and the people around him really believe they are performing a public service when they launch attacks on the food industry in this case, or American foreign policy in other cases,” Collins told CNSNews.com “They earnestly believe in their rightness.”
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