American Journalism On, Before, and After September 11

Abstract

Before the events in New York and Washington could be grasped as history, they appeared only as chronology and narrative. At 8:50 am on that day, the morning news programs on the major American television networks were coming off a commercial break, ready for what was for most the last segment before switching to game shows, soap operas, and the light chatter that would normally dominate the remainder of the day. As the clock clicked to 8:51, Diane Sawyer, looking typically grave on ABC’s Good Morning America, broke the flow of the show by saying: “we just got a report that some sort of explosion has occurred at the World Trade Center . . . that a plane may have hit one of the towers.” This was six minutes after the crash had actually occurred. A camera aloft on a helicopter to give morning weather and traffic reports immediately went live with a shot of the North Tower, smoke billowing out of gaping holes on two sides of the upper floors.

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