NEW YORK (CNN)–Veteran newsman Peter Jennings was remembered on August 8 as an outstanding journalist–a hard worker and "a man of conscience and integrity." The longtime anchor of ABC "World News Tonight" died on August 7–some four months after he announced on the air that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Peter Jennings will always be admired by Armenian Americans for his hard-hitting stance on the Armenian genocide. When the American media cautiously avoided use of the word "genocide" to describe the attempted annihilation of Armenia’s at the turn of the 20th century–Jennings minced no words.
In a thorough five-minute segment that appeared in 1999–Jennings said–"It is sometimes called ?the Armenian holocaust.’ And one of its perpetrators–Talaat Pasha–is known to Armenia’s as the Turkish Hitler. Look at what is happening now to the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo–and you can follow a line that leads–finally–here–to the near annihilation of the Turkish Armenia’s in 1915. It was–quite simply–the first genocide of the 20th century.
"Good Morning America" co-host Charles Gibson announced late Sunday that Jennings died in his New York City apartment with his wife–Kayce–his children Elizabeth and Christopher–and his sister at his side. Jennings was 67.