PETER Jennings says he wasn’t grimacing after George W. Bush’s speech last Sunday night – and that he’s not biased against Bush.

And Jennings also says that viewers shouldn’t read too much into his facial expressions – in which he continually fluttered his eyelids and closed his eyes entirely while assessing Bush’s speech.

Some viewers who watched Jennings’ coverage of Bush’s speech charged in e-mails to the ABC anchor that he appeared to grimace after Bush appeared on national TV to give his “acceptance” speech after being certified the winner of Florida.

“There were a lot of e-mail messages that suggested the look on my face after Bush spoke last night was disapproving – even biased,” Jennings wrote in his daily e-mail message on Monday.

“Actually, I was struck by the fact that it was a very serious moment and we treated it accordingly.”

Jennings – who sends his e-mails to subscribers – said the perception that he may have appeared biased is something called “the eye of the beholder syndrome.”

“These [e-mail] messages remind me that as viewers we all bring our own biases to bear when we’re watching the news,” Jennings wrote.

“Some years ago a professor concluded, in what he alleged was a serious survey, that every time President Reagan was on television, I smiled, therefore that I was politically disposed to the president.

“I wondered at the time whether his college thought that was a worthwhile way to spend research money.”

The allegations that Jennings appeared biased on national TV come at a time when critics say that the major broadcast networks have been less-than-objective during ongoing coverage of one of the most complicated and controversial elections in American history.