ABC News’ former president remembers winning an argument with Peter Jennings but learning the value of the legendary anchor’s point of view. Excerpt from the talk on May 30, 2012.

DAVID WESTIN, President and Chief Executive Officer, NewsRight; Former President, ABC News; Author, Exit Interview

The death of Princess Diana happened early in my tenure [as president of ABC News]. I had been in the job for about four and a half months. Peter Jennings was, of course, one of the people I worked with; I got to know Peter very well; we became quite close personally and professionally. But in the fall of ’97, he was a great journalist and as a great journalist was very skeptical of everything – including me. He was not all sure why I was running ABC News, as [I was not] a journalist, and he wasn’t very shy about it.

The first time we really clashed was over the death of Princess Diana, and it was not comfortable. It was Labor Day weekend, so most people were away. I found myself in the newsroom largely alone without people like Peter, because they were out of town.

One of the first decisions I made was that we would prepare a primetime special. Peter called at 11:20 at night, when he caught up with the coverage.

Peter could be very firm and very to the point. He said, “David, I understand Princess Diana has died and you’re considering a primetime special.” I said, “Yes, that’s right; we’re working on it.”

He said, “That is your right. But I feel I owe it to you to tell you that if you do a primetime special on Princess Diana, no one will ever take you seriously as the president of ABC News.”

So here I am, four months into my tenure, having come from outside journalism, and I have Peter Jennings, a bona fide legend, somebody I had enormous respect for, telling me I was blowing my first big news call, and blowing it by a good margin. I didn’t have a lot of journalism to fall back on, at that point, so I fell back on my family. I said, “Peter, I understand she wasn’t the head of state, but I have a sister back in Michigan who never reads tabloids, but she has read every detail about Diana’s life since the moment she got engaged to Prince Charles. I think there are other people who will feel that way.”

He said, “Well, I said it’s your right. I will have nothing to do with it.” That was the end of the conversation. In fairness, Peter called the very next morning and said, “David, I’ve read all the coverage. You were right, I was wrong. So I would like to do the special.”

So we aired a two-hour special that night.

In that particular instance, Peter was wrong and I was right. But that’s not what I took away from this. What I took away is a much more important point. Peter was saying you have to keep in mind the line between entertainment and news; you have to be thinking about why you are reporting the story. Are you reporting it because it’s really of historical significance, or are you reporting it because people just want to know about it?

That line, by the way, has moved substantially. If Princess Diana died today, there wouldn’t be any debate in any newsroom about a primetime special, and probably it was right for the line to move. But what I took away was the importance that there be a line and that people always be wrestling with that. There’s no clear answer; it’s not easy.