Observations on U.S. media coverage immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attack

  For several years television networks have regretfully insisted on placing those stupid little 'bugs' on lower corners of the pictures, as if modern cable tuners don't already tell you what channel you're on. This made having a VCR less worthwhile during the 1990's, and these annoying 'bugs' now desecrate many copies of old movies as well as new shows. This was followed by the shrinkage of credits at the end of a show to half the screen in order to accommodate yet more ads. That the people who worked hard to make these shows ended up with their names squeezed to illegibility is a quiet tragedy and an insult to them.

  As soon as coverage of the September 11 2001 event began, the lower third of the television screens of America were quickly appropriated with banners and reminders that it was a breaking story. This was soon heaped upon with more layers of text and even a small constant traveling 'ticker tape' style line of additional text. Television largely abandoned the role it was best at, to show you an astonishing live event, and allowed us only a narrow view through network graphics and inane text.

  The networks felt a need to present the horrific spectacle behind their facade of sloganeering rather than allowing us a clear view of the events which were revealing enough by themselves. One cable news network even used a 'loop' of a closeup of the crumbling north tower as a background for TV 'windows' of interviews and commentary, using an image of the deaths of thousands of people in a crass fashion merely for emphasis of their programming. Many times critical events in the lower frame of tapes people captured of the event happened under these gaudy banners. One astonishing videotape of a direct view of the second airliner impact against the tower was never truly seen that day because the impact happened in the lowermost quarter of the screen! The perceived need to lay simpleminded banners over history gave television coverage a sleazy appearance compared to the media coverage of past monumental events.

  This was the first time three full days of regular television programming was generally scrapped since Apollo 11 in 1969, and of course the Kennedy assassination in 1963. The start of the U.S. participation in the Gulf War lasted only a day or so. The most prominent news readers felt the need to stay at their desks until they almost had to be carried out.

  As the days passed, the cable news networks used introductory dire music and brief montages of the aftermath of the events as a kind of mood setting theme for their programming. In the next few days heroic firefighters and rescue workers were featured in such imagery, with increasing patriotic themes and American flags. A red-white-blue ribbon motif was introduced, with a computer animated looping ribbon quickly appearing on MSNBC. The ribbon as a patriotic symbol dates from the Iran Hostage Crisis, when a song by Tony Orlando and Dawn, 'Yellow Ribbon' inspired people to tie yellow ribbons on trees and poles in honor of the hostages. During the Gulf War yellow ribbons were widely used as a symbol to 'support the troops'. (This seemed to be a part of a media campaign designed to shout over objections many people had to that questionable use of military power)

  As an American response seemed imminent, the symbology used by the cable media changed to military themes such as soldiers, jets, and aircraft carriers. Always the two layers of text and larger three word slogans were there.   Once the retaliation began, loud drumming was prominently featured, and stars and stripes along with red, white, and blue were everywhere you looked on either side of commercial breaks. People in the media tried to manage the moods of their viewers for commercial reasons, just as earlier despotic governments used propaganda for political manipulation. Either they are exploiting what they think is being felt by the audience or they want to promote uniformity of reaction to what they show by prompting us towards emotional states of their choosing. In general American news readers are treated too much like celebrities. The true virtue of television as a window to live events has largely been lost by the use of intermediaries and intrusive banners.

  CNN seemed to be the best in it's news coverage overall, with MSNBC a close second. Fox was a distant third, with blatant demagoguery employed by interview show hosts and vacant chatter by their morning show anchors. Cheap looking flashy graphics were piled on at every opportunity so what you saw was their visual look which occassionally gave you a guarded glimpse at the events outside. In the meantime the 'Free Speech TV' alternative video network carried in some markets, and Pacifica radio with stations of varying worth in some major cities, provided other opinions and observations lacking in major outlets at times among their own specialty programming. Occassional looks at the British 'Sky News' network made me wish it was more widely available here, as it was clearly superior not only in finding and getting out real news, but the interviewers as well as those interviewed knew what they were talking about.

  As October rolled along disturbing events were either clustered together randomly or apparently magnified by enhanced media scrutiny. A jet flying from Israel to Russia blew up in midair, and initial reports of terrorism gave way to a story advanced by the American government, later seemingly confirmed, that a missile had mistakenly brought down the plane. This was, ironically, a theory dismissed at great lengths by officials in the U.S. after the midair explosion of TWA flight 800 from New York. Shortly afterwards the first case of anthrax was detected in a worker at a tabloid paper in Florida, with efforts to soft pedal the story made by officials before other cases started to crop up. The Vice President began to be kept in a secret location some distance apart from the President, and all the windows of the capitol buildings were being reinforced with flexible plastic to inhibit their shattering in the event of a blast wave passing by. One suspects the government knows more than it feels it can talk about without causing a panic. We will see.

  A consequence of this event was a reappraisal of the popular view of Moslem countries. In particular Saudi Arabia, where most of the hijackers came from, was seen to be teeming with people who hate us. A poll conducted among some Moslem countries revealed hostility and mistrust of America and the West and denial of Arabs role in the attacks! Conspiracy stories were circulated in that part of the world that the Jews working in the Twin Towers evacuated just before the attacks after getting advanced warning, and one bizarre story even blamed the Israeli Mosad intelligence agency for the atrocity! The primary source of news from the Moslem world was the Al-Jazeera network, which aired tapes by Osama Bin Laden himself, as well as fiery speeches meant to incite hatred against the United States. American media aired the first such tirades more or less complete, but caved in to government pressure to not provide them a domestic audience under the guise of concern about conceivable 'hidden messages' to 'sleeper cells' of hidden terrorists waiting for orders. The earlier Bin Laden videos revealed geologic details behind him which narrowed down his location, and later tapes were made with featureless stretched cloth backdrops presumably after watching the news media.

  Media access to the subsequent U.S. military responses in Afghanistan early the next year was highly restricted, guns even being pointed at people with cameras. The censoring of the horrible aspects of the Gulf War was only the starting point for the tightly orchestrated glimpses the military allowed to be seen of this new vaguely defined war. In the meantime opportunities to expand their vision of a 'police state' have never been more fruitful for the conservative activists riding the coattails of the messed up election and the public reaction to 9/11. Racial profiling was overnight changed from a legal outrage to a perceived necessity for national security. Cameras snooping on people in public places were within sight of being beaten back, only to be ram-rodded through after the terrorist attacks. Greater power to investigate peoples library and internet preferenceswas sought. The infrastructure for a totalitarian government is being swiftly woven around us like a wire cage. Let us beware of the changes a right wing president who stole the election and his troglodyte cronies wishes to impose on our society. Somehow the thought of less than 20 moslem fanatics being allowed to wipe away our freedoms looks worse in the long run than the events themselves.