Columnist Benjamin Grove: Media’s role will be crucial this 9/11

Benjamin Grove

Friday, Aug. 23, 2002 | 4:15 a.m.

NEWSWEEK magazine television critic Marc Peyser said last week that no single event received more television coverage than the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Peyser said the coverage generally was "impressive, important, perhaps even essential to helping the country cope with the terrorism and its aftermath."

No one would deny that it was television's finest moment ever, Peyser wrote.

But what of Sept. 11, 2002? Will the media do as well the second time around?

Of course, the media produce a glut of anniversary stories each year, from the frivolous ("25 Years After Elvis' Death, He Still Has Us All Shook Up") to serious ("Activists Commemorate 13th Anniversary of Tiananmen Crackdown").

So don't think you can escape this one. Get ready for Sept. 11 II. It may be the most widely covered anniversary ever.

"Will we maybe, just possibly witness the unedifying spectacle of the media going overboard?" Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz asked in an online column earlier this month. "Is the pope Catholic?"

There is added pressure on the nation's reporters and editors to get Sept. 11 coverage right -- to be thorough without overkill, poignant but not sappy, informative and not manipulative.

There's a tasteful way to cover this anniversary, and responsible coverage can help people deal with their own feelings about the tragedy, experts say.

Here are a few ways the media might improve their coverage.

Kurtz's advice: "Isn't it more important at this point to look forward -- toward tighter homeland security, safer airports, rebuilding Afghanistan -- than to wallow in the tragedy whose effects have never really left us?"

There is a delicate balance to be struck between the stories designed to tug at our heartstrings and those that offer meaningful analysis. The media likely will -- and should -- focus on the war on terrorism and our nation's intelligence network, asking hard questions about what has gone right and wrong so far. How well did Congress spend money in the wake of Sept. 11? What changes has the CIA made? How should President Bush deal with Iraq? How have civil liberties fared in the face of increased security?

"What I would advocate is a more in-depth examination of the important issues, rather than merely a commemoration of the actual attack," University of Nevada, Reno, journalism professor Travis Linn said.

Many media outlets will focus on old angles, re-running the most dramatic footage, re-interviewing eye witnesses, scrambling for the predictable "get" interviews with Rudy Giuliani or other familiar faces, said Jan Schaffer, executive director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. But she said there are still complex questions that remain largely unexplored:

What does the rest of the world think about the United States one year later, and how are we dealing with our friends and allies?

How interconnected have our global communities become? Why do several toppled buildings in New York affect everything from the world economy, its employment rates, the stock market, philanthropic activity, the airline industry and countless other ripples?

"Writ large, I think it calls into question just how fragile capitalism and democracy are," Schaffer said.

Anniversaries offer the media a good opportunity to bring people up-to-date, and viewers and readers have lost track of many issues, Schaffer said.

What's the cost of the war, in lives and dollars? How much have we learned about al-Qaida? What's happening with the prisoners arrested in Afghanistan? How much "justice" has been accomplished?

Specifically, use sparingly video of the towers falling, and the planes hitting them. Network news directors are grappling with the news value of showing the footage again, especially when it is available on the Internet for those who seek it.

The networks during the last year have generally refrained from showing the planes actually hitting the towers. But viewers can expect to see it again on Sept. 11, and should brace themselves for it, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, psychology professor Christopher Kearney said. While some might be jaded by the images, others may be surprised anew at the horror, he said.

"People who are going to be absorbing a lot of media coverage should prepare themselves before they do it," Kearney said.

I do not realistically expect to hear Peter Jennings tell viewers to switch off their televisions.

But it would be refreshing to hear a media type suggest that a viewer or reader might better spend part of the day at a memorial service, volunteering at school, or simply spending some quiet time with family.

While the media have an important role to play Sept. 11, perhaps they shouldn't play the starring one.