RI Media To Remember 9/11 In A Special Way
Thursday, September 08, 2011
It was a beautiful Tuesday morning.
The sun was shining. This writer, a TV reporter in Boston at the time, remembers it vividly.
At 8:46am – the world as we knew it changed forever when the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11th – nearly 10-years ago.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAs the nation and the state prepare to remember the tragedy caused by those pathetic cowards – the media is gearing up for substantial coverage. There are those who will argue there is not enough coverage of the event and those who will say there is too much coverage and they can’t watch it anymore.
For better or worse, television---not print---not radio---not digital brought the images of New York City and other areas hit by the terrorists into people’s living rooms in a way that many will never forget. The power of television is its ability to “bring people” to events that happen as they happen. The images of 9/11 were captured on video but recorded in people’s minds in a way that many had not experienced before.
Providence Stations Return To New York City
There were Rhode Islanders affected by the events of 9/11. Not only people lost, but also those who went there to help. First responders. Heroes who sifted through rubble to help. Both Channel 10 and Channel 12 – who sent crews to NYC to cover the aftermath a decade ago are going back again with same people who covered it then. In reality, the networks are able to cover stories like this in a way that even the best local station can’t compete with obviously. But when a local station sends a crew into a national tragedy like this, it allows the reporter and photographer to find those special stories about Rhode Islanders that a network would never focus on.
Channel 10, owned by Media General, is making the commitment to 9/11 coverage. The station group will be sending crews to the Pentagon, Shanksville, PA, and Ground Zero according to WJAR News Director Chris Lanni. “The Ground Zero crew will be WJAR’s Gene Valicenti and photojournalist Bob Farrell. It’s the same reporter/photographer team we sent down 10 years ago. They first began reporting live on 9/12/2001 and spent several days in New York City”.
Lanni says during the anniversary coverage this year, the focus will be on local residents with live coverage starting this Friday night at 5pm and continuing through the station’s 11pm newscast on Sunday. “During this anniversary coverage, they will meet up with first responders from Southern New England, talk with local families who lost loved ones and cover the events planned for the anniversary.”
Channel 12 News Director Joe Abouzeid, tells GoLocal sending a crew to cover the events of the anniversary is an important commitment the station has to serving viewers who all live differently now because of the events of 9/11. Reporter Walt Buteau and photojournalist Les Breault will also be returning to Ground Zero 10 years later. They covered it together back then and will have coverage on air and online beginning Friday on Channel 12” said Abouzeid.
Special Newsmakers Program
In addition to the news coverage by Buteau and Breault, Channel 12 Investigative Reporter Tim White and Digital Reporter, Ted Nesi are heading to Washington, DC to shoot a special episode of the station’s Newsmakers interview program. They’ll be sitting down with Senators Reed and Whitehouse for their reflections of 9/11. That will air Saturday night at 7:30pm as part of Channel 12’s special coverage of the 9/11 Anniversary. The program will also air again in its regular spot on Sunday morning. News coverage, from Ground Zero will also be happening through Sunday evening just like Channel 10.
Kudos to both Channel 10 and Channel 12 for investing in the resources to send people to cover this event. Hopefully, they are doing it with the goal of providing unique content about local people touched by what happened.
It’s not clear if Channel 6 is planning any special coverage at all in terms of special programming or sending a crew to New York City. Channel 6 has not responded to our requests for information about their coverage.
Network Coverage
You can count on the Networks for expanded coverage for sure. In fact some of the coverage started earlier this week with reporting from CNN and PBS. Brian Williams will head NBC’s coverage and he’ll be joined by legendary anchor man Tom Brokaw who was actually the network’s anchor 10-years ago during the attacks. On ABC--Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos will anchor ABC’s special coverage on the morning of Sept. 11th and look for CBS’s new anchor—Scott Pelley.
Frankly, coverage will be hard to avoid this weekend if you have a TV on.
But, perhaps that’s the way it should be.
Not only to remember. But also to remind those sick, twisted terrorists that 10-years later our spirit can’t be broken.
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