Peter Jennings Diagnosed With Lung Cancer

Peter Jennings, ABC News’ chief anchorman for more than 20 years, has been diagnosed with lung cancer, the network announced Tuesday. Jennings will begin outpatient treatment this week. According to the network, Jennings plans to try to keep working while undergoing chemotherapy "to the extent he can do so comfortably. Charlie Gibson, Elizabeth Vargas, and others will substitute on occasion for Jennings if necessary.

ABC News President David Westin sent an e-mail Tuesday morning to the network’s news staff nationwide advising them of Jennings’ diagnosis and plans for treatment. "He’s already bringing to this new challenge the courage and strength we've seen so often in his reporting from the field and in anchoring ABC News," Westin wrote. "All of us at ABC News have watched over the years as Peter has led us on various assignments with strength and with courage. We've done our best to support him in these endeavors. Now this. Peter's been given a tough assignment."

As anchorman of "World News Tonight" on ABC, Jennings is the last of the Big Three network anchors still sitting in the chief anchorman seat. Dan Rather on CBS and Tom Brokaw on NBC had both served alongside him in the trinity of major network anchors, until both stepped down from their anchor desks earlier this year. Jennings joined ABC in 1964, briefly serving as the anchor of the ABC Evening News from 1965 to 1968. He then worked as the chief foreign correspondent for ABC News, served as ABC’s bureau chief for Beirut for seven years, and was the foreign desk anchor for World News Tonight from 1978 to 1983. He became the anchor and senior editor of World News Tonight in 1983, the youngest network anchor in the history of television.

Born in Toronto, the 66-year old Jennings recently became a naturalized U.S. citizen. During his long and adventurous career, he has covered many major news events as one of the world’s most distinguished news reporters. He was in Berlin in the 1960s when the Berlin Wall was being built, and he was there in the 1990s when the wall came back down. Jennings has worked in every European nation that once was behind the Iron Curtain. He covered the major civil rights struggles of the 20th century, including the movement in the Southern U.S. during the 1960s, as well as the struggle for equality in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. Jennings was also there when the Voting Rights Act was signed in 1965 and on the other side of the world when black South Africans voted for the first time.

A former smoker who quit over 20 years ago, the tragic events of 9/11 caused him to weaken under the pressure, and he started smoking again. He was too ill to work Saturday during the network's special report on Pope John Paul's death. Jennings sent "World News Tonight" senior staffers and e-mail on Monday telling them about his illness. His note reassured them that his attitude is upbeat and positive by saying, "There will be good days and bad, which means that some days I may be cranky and some days really cranky!" But he acknowledged that the road ahead will be a new one for him. "Almost 10 million Americans are living with cancer," Jennings wrote. "I am sure I will learn from them how to cope with the facts of life that none of us anticipated."

When former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw learned of Jennings’ situation on Tuesday, he said that he was "heartbroken" at the news his friend had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Jennings is a "tough guy," his former network rival said, adding he's "counting on him getting through this very difficult passage."