All forms of media — print, television, and internet — will likely dedicate coverage today in equal measures to reliving and rehashing the morning of September 11th, 2001. I will do no different, although there is always a temptation to let these somber anniversaries slip by unrecorded.
Like nearly anyone who lived in New York or Washington, D.C., I have some personal connection to the events of that day. Mine comes from working for a company which was located on the 87th floor of 1 World Trade Center. Yet, thankfully, no one either from that company died as a result of the events of that day.
As the now-familiar events unfolded on the ground in New York and Washington, global news organizations were experiencing the media equivalent of a 500-year flood. In the rush to commemoration, interestingly enough, a limited amount of introspection about the coverage is taking place. CNN is re-running their coverage from that morning, both on their cable channel and on CNN.com. I don’t expect that anyone will find the story riveting a second time around — obviously, there will be no grim surprises, and the footage available that morning was very limited, so we ended up watching the same 15 seconds loop again and again with the voices anchors and commentators asking and answering questions for which we now know truer answers. Watching the rescue attempts at the World Trade Center, knowing the collapse is imminent, can only be heart rending. Yet, I suspect CNN will have plenty of takers.
An interesting, yet reasonably undiscussed event of that morning was related to the rush of interest in global news sources. While I’m sure a few exceptions existed, nearly ever major news outlets’ web presence was overwhelmed and unavailable due to the volume of traffic on that morning. There were certainly other major news events which inspired heavy web traffic, this was the first one to cause widespread unavailability of news sources. Not only did people consider the web a legitimate place to go for urgent, breaking news, but they did so in such a tremendous way that those news sources were unable to sustain the traffic. Perhaps this was a consequence of the events happening during the day, when many people were unable to watch on TV. Still, it felt like an important moment in the validation of the web as an important and trusted way to get news.
Five years, however, does little to blunt the emotional hit that comes every time I see the image of the scarred and empty part of downtown New York. I remember all that was there — people, places, experiences — and I regret having seen it end as it did. Yet, I can’t quite bring myself to let another somber anniversary slip by, unrecorded. I recognize all that was lost, rejoice in what was rebuilt, and look forward to seeing whatever comes next.
May this day pass quietly, and with peace.