9/11, The Film

Received via email today:

Memo To: Broadcast News Executives
From: Patricia Koyce Wanniski
Re: The Naudet Documentary

There’s been quite a bit of debate lately over the state of television news. Ted Koppel’s blindsiding by his own network stands out as an abysmal example of how little real news is valued on the tube by short-sighted executives looking only at the bottom line. News as such gets reduced to simpler and simpler sound bites, until it isn’t news at all, but pablum. Let’s face it: We’re now used to a “news” broadcast that reduces a complex story such as the economy to a 30-second lead-in to the weather, and accepting a screamfest masquerading as intelligent talk show banter (thanks to John McLaughlin, Bill O’Reilly and the just-plain-awful Hannity & Colmes). But in this bad week for television news, CBS stands tall.

The reason CBS deserves praise is the decision to air 9/11, a two-hour documentary video shot by French filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet. The Naudets had been given unprecedented access to the men of Engine 7, Ladder 1, in downtown Manhattan, and had been working with the fire company for several months, when they chose to follow a young recruit around the city. His first call was to the World Trade Center on September 11. They followed the company from its arrival at the towers, to the journey up the stairs to the 30th floor when the firefighters received the order to evacuate, just making it out before the collapse of the south tower. Incredibly, all of the company survived. For months, the New York papers carried whispers of an underground video shot inside the towers, now being passed about at firehouses in the area. Now we all are about to have the chance to see it. At this writing, CBS was still debating whether or not to run it with limited commercials or none at all – commendably, the only debate over the program which seems to have taken place in the boardroom.

CBS has taken some considerable flak, at least in the New York area, over the broadcast. There are many families, understandably enough, who find it extraordinarily painful to think of watching the last moments of their friends, brothers, sons, lovers and husbands. And it will be extraordinarily painful to view, of this I am sure. I dread the very idea of watching it, even though those reviewers and reporters who have seen it say CBS and the editors have taken great pains not to sensationalize the film — to make it more graphic than it is. I confess one of the reviews actually brought on a visceral reaction, the same hideous mix of disbelief and horror and pain I felt that morning and which I had hoped never to feel again. Even my tough-guy Irish firefighter father has mixed emotions about the film being broadcast so soon after the attack. This is, however, a unique event in our history, and even if the Naudets had not been able to go into the World Trade Center, the footage would have been valuable, since this is the only existing video of the first plane hitting the north tower. And if not now, when? Will we as Americans ever be able to view these events with detachment? I know I never will.

It is because the film takes the view as seen from the inside, from the firefighters’ point of view, that makes it unprecedented as a news story. It’s an awful event that changes the character of a nation, comparable to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, viewed from a different angle – if this isn’t news, then what is? It’s part of the story we never expected to be able to see. And it’s part of the story we need to see. It’s very rare that we are permitted to see things in three dimensions. Here is a chance to add a dimension, to honor the firefighters who sacrificed everything, every hope and dream they ever had, and the hopes and dreams of their families, to preserve life, to do their duty. The firemen who survived are there still, on duty, removing their brothers and civilians from the rubble, long after Rep. Gary Condit has reemerged as a news story. And we forget this, going on about the flotsam and jetsam of daily life. CBS, the Naudets, and 9/11 will remind us. This is what news should be, telling us the whole truth, from as many angles as possible so we don’t lose sight of the world at large. After all, isn’t news gathering all about garnering each side of the story so we as a nation can understand our neighbors next door and around the world? Isn’t this what is missing from so many news programs?

Anyway, I will be watching, and taping for posterity. I will bear witness to the valor of these men, and the Naudets as well, and I will remember. And I salute CBS for giving me the opportunity to do so.

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