OpinionJournal has an interesting article by Claudia Rosett on the 9/11 special airing on CBS tonight. Rosett argues that the special is dishonest in its attempt to be sensitive, sugar-coating the terrorist attack rather than showing it in its full horror. We need to face the reality of those attacks squarely, even if painful.
I have often wondered why the news outlets have shown little footage of the planes slamming into the World Trade Center since those first few days after 9/11. Those images would recapture all of the overwhelming emotion of that day for me, from incredulity to despair. I want to be reminded of those emotions, of the magnitude of the events that day. No too often, for then such feelings are trivialized. But a special on the six month anniversary would seem to be an excellent time to really show us again the full reality of what happened.
We’ll see how well or poorly CBS does tonight. I’m not too hopeful.
