Peter Jennings And Constitution BFF 4Eva

There are many reasons to miss Peter Jennings. For example, he called Henry Kissinger a war criminal to his face. That’s so awesome I bet Kissinger himself even thought it was awesome. Also, Jennings was a great journalist, an excellent news anchor, etc., etc.

And, according to Gail Shister’s column in the Inquirer, the Canadian-born journalist was also a big fan of the U.S. Constitution:

The late ABC anchor - Canadian by birth, American by choice - revered the archival document so much that he kept a copy in his back pocket.

“He had a million of them,” says his widow, independent producer Kayce Freed Jennings. He loved to hand out copies to friends and colleagues and anyone else with a yearning to be free.

Shister also talks with CBS Evening News head Rick Kaplan, who worked with Jennings on ABC World News Tonight, who has adapted the trait as his own and also carries a copy of the Constitution with him at all times.

Kaplan called the Constitution “the most liberating, wonderful document that human beings could ever have possibly written, next to the Ten Commandments.” Clearly he’s never read LL Cool J’s Platinum Workout: Sculpt Your Best Body Ever with Hollywood’s Fittest Star, which is what I carry on my person at all times.

Gail Shister | Constitution always dear, and very near, to Jennings [Inquirer]