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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2005)
auflusl 19.2005’ jUSt OUt.41 Anchors away Peter Jennings’ death sends network news further Into the abyss s a longtime pop culture junkie, I’m hopelessly preoccupied with celebrity deaths. Whenever I hear about the passing of a fallen star—the more low-rent the better—I pause for a moment of silence. This year alone we’ve lost Miss Ellie from Dallas, Scotty from Star Trek, The Riddler from Batman and Dex: Baker from Little House on the Prairie (who kicked the bucket in Grants Pass, of all places). But when news broke that ABC anchor Peter Jennings died of lung cancer Aug. 7 at by Jim Radosta age 67,1 was actually bummed. Not only was he a familiar face on the evening news for 27 * years, but he exemplified a smart sophistication that has been quickly fading from broadcast THE TOP SHELF journalism since the telecommunications deregulation of 1996. Good news for Melissa Etheridge fans: With the recent departures of Dan Rather After announcing last October that from CBS and Tom Brokaw from NBC, we she was undergoing surgery to have a face an uncertain future of further deteriorating malignant tumor removed from her newscasts that confuse entertainment with breast, the dyke rocker told Extra information, that synergize stories with sweeps Aug. 4 that she is cancer free. She attributed stunts and, most shamefully, that ignore the fla her successful recovery to the strong support of grant corruption of the Bush administration. her partner, actress Tammy Lynn Michaels. The networks now have an arsenal of smoking “At the end of the whole thing when it was guns—Diebold, Abu Ghraib, Downing Street, over, I came home to a bouquet that said ‘in Jeff Gannon, Karl Rove—but you wouldn’t sickness and in health,’ and she means it,” know it by tuning in to ABC’s World News Etheridge said. “And the love and support of Tonight. Instead, the program recently devoted someone like that is worth all the money in a significant segment of its precious time to the the world.” popularity of Christian video games. The couple are even planning on having a How far we’ve sunk since 1979, when ABC baby together, but David Crosby wqn’t be the News produced The Killing Ground, a scathing sperm donor this time around. “Been there, expose on toxic waste dumps like the one in done that,” Etheridge said. Love Canal near Nia As one queer icon heals, another gara, N.Y. The chief ails. Ani DiFranco’s label correspondent was none announced July 21 that the tireless other than Brit Hume, singer/songwriter is taking a hiatus who’s now polluting the from live performance until next airwaves himself at the summer because of tendonitis. Fox News Channel. “In late spring, Ani’s doctor Clinton Street Theater instructed her to follow a regimen of screened the documen relative rest, restriction of hand use tary this month as part to critical times, nonsteroidal med of a retrospective on ications and splinting," Righteous investigative journalism, Babe Records said in a statement. and I was struck by the “Unfortunately, after having taken steadfast zeal of the almost three months off from touring reporters who went after earlier this year to treat her condi these unapologetic cor Peter Jennings: Thank you, and tion, Ani’s problems have not porate scumbags. decreased in severity. If she were to good night. These days, ABC continue to perform at this time, she News apparently has nothing better to do than would risk permanent nerve damage to her disparage the dead. Last November—mere hands.” weeks after the gay-bashing of the 2004 presi Di Franco was scheduled to perform Sept. 2 dential election— 2QI20 aired a segment that in Veneta, Sept. 3 in Portland and Sept. 10 in implied Matthew Shepard was murdered not Jacksonville. Those who have already pur because he was gay but because of money and chased tickets should check with the point of drugs. That’s right, folks, the most famous anti- purchase for instructions on receiving a refund. gay hate crime in history wasn’t really motivat ed by hate—if you believe highly dubious sources, misleading oversimplifications, distort Zff “Star Wars is over/Will the force be ed conjecture and sensationalistic repetition of with me so/I can get laid now?” unsubstantiated claims. —My entry in the Live Wire! haiku I’ve been a journalist for more than half my contest Aug. 17 at the Aladdin. (This month's life, ever since I joined my high school news theme was “summer blockbusters.”) Find out if I paper 18 years ago. While studying journalism won by tuning in to the zany radio variety show at in college, 1 learned that members of the media 7 p.m. Aug. 27 on OPB. are supposed to pursue truth with the same commitment that doctors and lawyers dedicate Humphries, aka Dame Edna, as if they were old to health and justice. 1 still believe in this friends. While the world celebrated together ideal, but without respectable journalists like for a brief moment of unity, Edna remarked Peter Jennings around, it’s going to be difficult. optimistically, “You feel, perhaps, peace among My fondest memory of his tenure at ABC men is a possibility.” came on New Year’s Eve 1999, when he calmly Ah, those were the days. JF1 reported on the non-event that was Y2K. From Arts and Culture Editor J IM RAIXISTA needs his perch in the middle of Times Square, Jen your feedback. 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