September 11- Remembering

This past Monday was the fifth year since the September 11 attacks. CNN Pipeline was streaming the CNN coverage from that dreadful day last Monday. I wasn't watching CNN on Sept. 11, 2001, rather I was in at school.

We were in trailers at Seven Hills during my freshman year and I remember that day all too well. I first heard about a plane hitting a building right at the beginning of Fruit Break, which would put it about an hour after it happened. I went into a science lab to watch the coverage and then during a double bell of biology, we continued to watch the coverage. At one point, I remember them saying on TV that it was a DC-3 that it the building. That obviously did not end up being true. We spoke about it in Richardson's English class and then again in Thompson's history class sixth bell. Mr. Bland, then Assistant Head of School (Mrs. Marrs was still principle) announced during fifth bell that all after-school activities were cancelled.

On that day, I know we were all asking what did this mean? How will this change the world? In insight, we were too close to the event to have an idea on the tremendous impact this would have on our lives.

Back to watching the original CNN coverage this past week, I was struck by how innocent our country was before the attacks. The first building was hit at 8:47am. CNN broke in from commercial to report what they were treating as an accident. Even after the second plane hit, the anchors were trying to figure if some navigation device malfunctioned. That it could have been foul play wasn't mentioned on the air until 9:20am. Terrorism wasn't mentioned until 9:25am. Now, anytime anything if remotely bad happens terrorism is always the first thing that comes to mind. This shows the dramatic shift in the American mind over the past five years. We lost our innocence that terrible day.

Aaron Brown was on the air reporting from a rooftop in sight of the World Trade Center by 9:35am. His coverage over the next few hours was nothing short of amazing. He was calm, reflective, and did a great job dealing with all the various reports coming in, most of them turning out to be false, reporting them but cautioning viewers that they were only reports. There were reports of fires and/or explosions on the Mall in DC, the State Department, the Treasury Department, and so many more places. At times many more than four planes were reported hijacked. He took control of all the information and did a great job putting all together for viewers.

Watching the original coverage was extremely interesting for a student of history like me. The journalism on that day turned into history, as Phillip Graham said "journalism is the first rough draft of history" and I think that's one of the things that attracts me to journalism. That day was journalism at its finest.