The September 11 Television Archive

I have a distinct memory of a commentator on UK tv describing one of the collapsing towers as looking like a 'banana being peeled' while it was collapsing. I think perhaps, just perhaps, it would've been a good idea to keep his observations to himself on that particular occasion.

That's horrifyingly compelling. Most awkward moment for me is ABC's coverage, where we can hear Diane Sawyer and others gasping "Oh my god" when the second plane hits, and then Charles Gibson comes in with "So we have a second plane" like he's moving on to the next item on QVC.

I go back and watch those probably more than I should. My interest in learning everything there is to know about 9/11 rivals my interest in WWII.

102 Minutes That Changed The World is on History tonight...supposed to include some rare and never before seen footage.

Sept 11, The Oklahoma Bombing and the Space Shuttle exploding...I learned of all of them on the radio.

I found Howard Stern's coverage of 911 the most moving and genuine. There's a moment when Robin says (before she tries to catch herself at the end) upon learning of the plane headed for DC "That's our whole Fing Government!" It's now on YouTube

I've seen the actual footage of the planes going into the Towers once and have never wanted to revisit... but I think I should.

Whats scary and funny is that none of thos resonates for me, because the enduring memory I have of TV on 9/11 is hearing that planes crashed into the World Trade Center, turning on the TV for more information and, because my mother's house at the time had no cable, and the transmitters for CBS, NBC, and ABC were located in the North Tower, getting nothing but static.

That scene in Signs where that happens still scares the ever living shit out of me for that very reason.

This was probably the only time Howard Stern has ever been a source of comfort. That show was my warm little fire for roughly a week., Just hearing those guys come in at 5, tired, angry, and sad, but just talking to each other as friends for 5 hours helped more than all the grief counselors in the world.

I gotta search for those Stern recordings.

These are still damn hard to watch.

There's a YouTube video I stumbled across a few years ago that contains the 911 call from a man trapped in the restaurant at the top of the tower. He's on the line when the collapse starts. Didn't expect it to go that far and it bothered the hell out of me for days.

Just looking though stuff on Youtube and the top story on The Today Show was Michael Jordan announcing he was coming back to the NBA. He should have took that as a sign.

The conspiacy theory videos are too much.

Thanks for the link. Not sure I'll check any of this out, but it's good to know that it's there.

At the time I lived in AZ. On September 10th I was drinking with friends till about five am the next day. I fell asleep around 5:15, right around when the first plane hit. About three hours later, 8 am or so AZ time, my roommate called for me to get up. I thought he was fucking with me, but I got up anyway. Went to my computer to check the news and CNN.com was a blank page with five links.

It's sort of haunts me that when I crawled into bed after a drinking binge, 3000 people died in a massive jet fuel incinerator.

I remember it vividly. I was driving to work on the interstate when I heard the first plane hit the towers. There was still confusion about that, and I thought to myself how does some idiot do that? Then, closer to work, the second plane hit, and everything got a little surreal. Before the announcer on the radio speculated that it could be an attack, my mind was already there, even though my body felt light and I couldn't really think straight. I remember wondering if I could make it to work or if I would forget how to drive, and make a sluggish mistake and crash or something. I got to work, and everyone in the squadron was around the duty desk, my duty desk, watching the monitors. We all watched in horror as the first tower fell, and that felt surreal too. After that, we all knew the second tower wasn't going to last long and waited. Nothing has been the same for us since that day.

I wonder how all those folks that were interviewed on morning shows in those fifteen minutes prior to the first attack feel about being giant footnotes in television history. I find those segments to be sort of morbidly fascinating in their inevitable march towards the complete psychic shift in the world. The FOX affiliate one, in particular, with the "Love Cruise" remote segment is kind of horrifying in its naivety.

I had a Sociology class that morning, and as I drove in, I wasn't listening to the radio, which was abnormal for me. I walked past the student televisions and saw everyone grouped around, but my class started at 9 and I didn't want to be late. When I got to the room, the professor had the television on. We all watched the second plane and then the Pentagon strike. The professor canceled class and we sat there a bit longer. I was only 19, and my mother called wanting me to come home. The school was in Oak Ridge, and within a rock's throw of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The town still has pill boxes at all 5 entry points into the city So I went home, listening to NBC and NPR, then watching CNN for the rest of the day.

The videos are moving. The background sound of producers gasping as the second plane went in is when everyone realized this isn't a terrible accident.

I couldn't watch it.

I understand they replayed the footage or some such thing on the second anniversary. I didn't watch it then, I won't watch it now. I'm not saying it's distasteful, it's just not for me. That coverage wasn't part of my 9/11 experience really. I was in Gym Class. They told us two planes had hit, and they were small planes. Then we went for a jog. I knew it was an attack given the fact two planes had hit, but most people were in denial. Half way on the jog, someone pulled up a car and told the coach that one of the buildings had collapsed. Gym ended. I drifted off to a classroom and watched the rest unfold till the second tower collapsed... and that was the end of TV for the day. Math was attempted, failed. In other classes we discussed the implications. I don't remember lunch. I watched the news when I got home, or maybe I didn't, it's kind of a blank

The first news coverage after that I have a clear memory of was when that jet crashed accidently in Brooklyn. That's when life kind of seemed to start up again, somehow. The fact it was an accident told me that I couldn't sit around waiting for the next shoe to drop, it was time to get on with life.

Maybe a long time from now I could watch the footage from a place of historical curiosity, but somehow it doesn't really feel like nine years ago (though, there are times when it feels like 50 years have gone by in the blink of an eye), and I just don't think I'd get anything positive out of watching the news cast. I don't really want to experience it for the first time from a different perspective. Once was enough, essentially

I seem to get sucked into watching these videos every couple years or so, and it's always pretty depressing thinking about all those people who used to be, and no longer are. The only weird sort of comfort I can find is from putting it in perspective relative to everything else that has gone on in recent history, and even today in other parts of the world. It's physically impossible for me to feel like crap over some thousands dead, when I know I channel/web surf everyday past similar numbers lost without skipping a beat.

I think part of the fascination this footage holds is the real-time nature of it. It's arguably the most widely-covered event in the history of the world. We didn't see news footage an hour or two later, we didn't have to wait for Cronkite to tell us about it, it was live right there in front of us.

The only thing vaguely comparable to it is the Challenger disaster, and even then, it was a shuttle launch; the possibility of a major malfunction was always present, just shoved so far into the backs of our minds by the program's success up to that point as to seem impossible. And if you saw it live, most likely you tuned in to see the launch. It was already on your screen. 9/11 intruded onto the sleepy calm of our morning routine. It was a brutal interruption, something no one could have possibly predicted. I think that's what gives the news footage its power -- like Ratty said, you know the inanity is about to replaced with awful profundity.

This is absolutely it. Like others, I for whatever morbid reason, end up watching some of this every year around this time. I was a senior in high school at the time, and when the staff found out they started wheeling the TVs into the classrooms from the library. That was interesting day, going from class to class, just watching the footage.

This is incredible. Thanks so much for posting the link. I'm gonna watch all this stuff again.