Jennings courts Brokaw viewers

The commercials are as patriotic as those created for any presidential candidate. As wistful piano chords provide the soundtrack, a parade of Rockwellian images — front porches, mothers and children, construction workers and an American flag — passes by.

These ads, however, were not created for President Bush or John Kerry, but for Peter Jennings, the longtime anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight."

And they are a result of an extremely rare moment in television news. On Dec. 2, for the first time in 21 years, one of the big broadcast networks will replace the anchor of its evening newscast, when Tom Brokaw yields "NBC Nightly News" to Brian Williams. That transition is expected to touch off anchor shopping among some of the nearly 25 million viewers who watch the networks' evening news.

Seeking to reclaim the ratings lead he lost seven years ago, Jennings, 66, is making the most of the changing of the guard. He has taken to the road to interview voters and candidates, and meet advertisers.

And while the ads created for Jennings do not mention his principal opponent, the tag line, in the eyes of some in the industry, appears to be an unmistakable shot across the anchor desk.

"Trust," the narrator intones, "is earned."

Jennings deferred questions about the marketing campaign to ABC News management. Jon Banner, the executive producer of "World News Tonight," makes no apologies for the promotional campaign.

"This is an opportunity for us to brag about the strengths of our broadcast," Banner said, referring to the credibility Jennings' long career as a correspondent and anchor provides.

Jennings began a trip earlier this month in Missouri, where he addressed a luncheon audience of 1,000 at a rodeo-and-livestock show in Kansas City. He then spent parts of the four-day trip aboard a customized bus previously used by the pop singer Justin Timberlake. In a late-night interview between Cleveland and Pittsburgh on this most recent trip in mid-October, his tie loosened and a plastic foam cup filled with white wine before him, Jennings took pains to explain his ambivalence about these double-edged trips.

"I accept that management wants me to be out there improving the circulation status of the broadcast," he said. "But if I were to start thinking that, it would have a horrible effect on my behavior."

Williams, 45, has not accumulated the resume or foreign postings of Jennings. Being 21 years younger can account for much of that discrepancy.