Lary Bloom
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Sunday, January 15, 2006
Munich and Peter Jennings
Steven Spielberg's film about the murder of 11 Israeli athletes in the 1972 Olympics has some brilliant touches. But it makes better history than art.The actual event left me exhausted and undone, and the film never matched that emotion. The Munich Olympics had great promise. In the days before the tragedy, the world was brought together by the most successful 4 feet 10 inch peacemaker in history. Olga Korbut, a little doll and a product of the heartless and cruel Soviet Union, lit up living rooms around the world with her spectacular gymnastic performance and spontaneous smile. What diplomats and armies had failed to do she had done overnight; with backflips on the balance beam, she created her own United Nations.
And, in a flash of gunfire, it was destroyed. Jim McKay, the most articulate and insightful sports reporter television ever had, became by necessity the narrator of horror. As Spielberg's movie
smartly shows, he was the one who announced at 3 a.m. EST the terrible news: "They're gone. They're all gone." All day and night he had done great work trying to make sense of what was going on, though he was saddled with Howard Cosell and others whose jobs in Munich were to report on games and who had no experience in covering massacres.
ABC executives quickly had flown in Peter Jennings to lend a hand. He was already stationed in Europe, and could give the sports team of reporters the help it needed. I remember him standing in the street below, Connollystrasse, authoritatively providing his commentary during the hours the athletes were being held hostage in the Olympic village.
He knew the world was watching him, including the culprits in the attack. And he said, inexplicably, to his audience the following (which I've paraphrased, because I can't recall the exact words): The thing about Arabs is that they seldom carry out their threats.
When I heard it, I couldn't believe my ears. This young punk Jennings saying something like that. Why? Perhaps in his own mind he was trying to offer hope. Perhaps he was trying to show off his erudition -- his knowledge of contemporary history to that point. Or just filling airtime. But whatever reason, it was inexcusable, and, to this day, I think his comments had an effect on the terrible outcome.
In the years since, I never watched a Peter Jennings news report, and I always wondered why nothing was ever made of his comments in Munich. In a lifetime of good work, it stands out as a moment of disgrace, and I've often wondered what would have happened differently if, on that black day in Munich, Peter Jennings had just shut up.
Posted by:Lary Bloom at 4:43 AM
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