Jour 1013- Intro. to Journalism

Charles E. Frees-Melvin (920722)

Thursday 13 September 2001

Subject: Commentary on TV Coverage of the “Attack on America”

I woke up on a beautiful summer day, as usual, went to class and came back for a noon rest. I left my dorm room and went to see my neighbours in the next room, who watch movies all the time, I saw the WTC and Pentagon on fire and ask, “What movie is this?” They responded with a “Dude, this is real!” At that moment I returned to my room and turned my T.V. on to watch a day of coverage. Switching back and forth from: NBC/CBC/Global/ABC/CTV/CBS/FOX/CNN/&TBS. I found that most of the footage was from CNN but I was hooked on the commentary by Peter Mansbridge (CBC).

Peter made me feel more secure in really knowing what was going on. It was also very helpful to have it from a Canadian perspective. I found that Lloyd Robertson (CTV) did not really have as of a heart touching production as Peter Jennings (ABC News).

Some of the most questionable stuff I saw was the broadcast from Global National News where most questionably the showed the man in freefall from the north tower. Also, Global National News had a very inconsistent format where the show was from Toronto than to Vancouver and Dartmouth and had so many hosts that about 2 pm they were contradicting each other and you lost the continuity of what was going on.

Also, details of the Pentagon looked liked like they were given less importance to the events at the World Trade Centre on all the broadcasts except WTBS from Atlanta. GA.

Now it is the evening of Thursday 13 September 2001, a full 60 hours after the “Attack on America.” Airports are slowly reviving. Survivors are slowly one by one being pulled out of the debris. The remnants of fires still exist in both buildings. “They are just spotted fires, and we would not like to pour water into the building since it could pour down into open spaces where there are most likely still survivors,” a rescue worker stated on CBS News he went on to say that, “It is likely that people could survive in the subfloors for days or weeks.”