It was a week filled with familiar sights in unfamiliar places. This was the first time since the assassination of President Kennedy that the networks pre-empted all their programming–including commercials–in favor of four nonstop days of news. By and large, the media got the story right, in quantity, content and tone. In large part, that may have been because so many journalists found themselves in the middle of the tragedy as it unfolded. ABC’s John McWethy was at work in the Pentagon when the plane crashed. CNBC anchor Ron Insana showed up at the NBC studios with soot still on his head to tell about life in the Wall Street area. Some of the most powerful reporting came from MSNBC’s Ashleigh Banfield, who more than anyone else was the eyes and ears in the grim shadow of the World Trade Center. She told a dramatic tale of being engulfed in a cloud of debris so thick that she had to kick in two glass doors to an apartment building just to keep from suffocating. On some days, stories like that might seem like reportorial muscle-flexing. In her case and countless others, it humanized the journalists, and the horrifying stories they told.
Considering the magnitude of the story, the media exercised commendable caution. Despite what must be hundreds and hundreds of corpses in Washington, New York and Pennsylvania, the networks rightfully kept the grisliest images from a shellshocked public. One unfortunate exception: the seemingly endless video of someone plunging from the World Trade Center, which CBS, Fox News and CNN showed repeatedly, though NBC wisely aired it only once. Even Hollywood, never a model of restraint, displayed some compassion. Movie studios pulled several releases, including “Collateral Damage,” a thriller about terrorism starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the Tim Allen film “Big Trouble,” which includes a comedic scene about a bomb in a plane. The TV industry was even more affected. The Sept. 16 Emmy Awards were postponed (as were last week’s professional football, baseball and golf games). ABC, NBC and CBS delayed their prime-time seasons for a week. The networks have also been scouring their programs for potentially offensive scenes. Fox pulled an ad for “24” that featured a terrorist blowing up an airplane. CBS indefinitely shelved the pilot of its CIA show “The Agency,” which concerns a terrorist bombing of London as well as a reference to Osama bin Laden. Even benign programs caused concern. NBC considered removing an airport-security joke from an episode of “Will & Grace.” And images of the World Trade Center are being almost universally erased, whether it’s from a scene in “Friends” or the opening credits of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and “Law & Order: SVU.” “We’re all just trying to do the right thing,” said Fox entertainment president Gail Berman.
The media weren’t perfect. As the week wore on, the networks sometimes got lost in the touching tales of families looking for relatives while forgetting that the news continued to unfold. Fox News seemed especially preoccupied with the survivors’ stories. To continue with that programming while other networks broke news of more possible terrorists at the New York airports was questionable. To keep those poor people on camera long after they dissolved in tears was cruel. Still, it seems churlish to complain about a few lapses in generally outstanding work by all. Sept. 11, 2001, was possibly the biggest news day since the advent of television. For the first time in a long while, we were grateful it was there.
