The Peter Jennings Effect

Executive Producer Jon Banner blogs: Polls say a majority of smokers want to quit. In November 2005, we at World News set out to help them. Peter Jennings died in August of that year after a heroic fight against lung cancer. (Photo credit: Ken Regan/ABC) For years Peter, at times a smoker himself, had been at the forefront of reporting on the dangers of tobacco.  It is the leading cause of preventable death in this country, and some 440,000 die each year from smoking-related illnesses.  No journalist knew the story better than Peter did. So after his death we created a series that in many ways continued his reporting. "Quit to Live" included producers "embedded" with smokers trying to quit, some of whom eventually succeeded, some who did not. It featured an investigative report by Brian Ross exposing how big tobacco lobbyists helped kill tobacco regulation. It reported on new drugs that help curb smokers’ addiction. We also produced a public service announcement featuring President Bush and dozens of other public figures and celebrities, urging smokers to quit. And we mentioned and promoted the National Cancer Institute’s “Quitline” (1-800-QUIT-NOW) on air after every story.  It appears the audience was paying attention. Today the American Journal of Health Promotion tells us there was, in essence, a "Peter Jennings effect" on the number of people who tried to quit. The month before our series began, the Quitline received calls from 9,723 smokers looking for help.  During our series 29,942 people called in — an increase of over 20,000 callers.  We don’t know the outcome of the calls, but it’s rewarding to all of us that our pieces made a difference and, hopefully, saved lives. Unfortunately, the month after our series ended, the number of smokers calling into the quit line dropped again, to under 9,000. Every state has a free counseling quit line. We’ve posted a list of them here, in addition to information about the quitline. As one doctor put it to us recently, knowing that help is available is half the battle.