Monday, September 11, 2006
September 11th - CNN and FOX News Live Feed
One thing about September 11th 2001 I will always regret is not being able to actually watch 90% of what took place that morning. I was stationed in Alaska, 4 hours behind the East Coast, so I missed nearly all of what took place that morning. By the time I got a call from a friend down in California, I was up, changed, and racing to the control tower on base to figure out what was going on and what I needed to do. After all, the base was locked down and my boss couldn't get onto base. It was one of those defining moments for me as a junior officer.
This past weekend I found out that CNN and FOX News would be replaying their news coverage from that morning in its entirety. I realized that this was a great opportunity to finally see what most of the country had witnessed that day.
I started with CNN.com's footage. Ironically the morning started out with a story about how important it was to evacuate when a Hurricane was approaching. From then on, the attacks took place and the story unfolded.
I then put FOXNews.com's feed up, and both live feed's played simultaneously. After watching both for 2+ hours... from start to finish, my opinion about my missing the footage that morning changed. I wish I wouldn't have seen it live.
There was so much uncertainty and chaos in what was being broadcast (small planes, cargo planes, explosions came from within, etc), and the broadcasters were so clueless as to what they were witnessing, my stomach just turned while I sat there. Seriously, I was sick to my stomach from the moment the first report came in.
The footage is still ongoing as of now, and will be throughout the day, but I think I've had my fill. It was hard watching everything unfold. I can't imagine how much harder it was watching it that day.
As with most of Americans, my life changed that day. My daughter, who was cuddled up on my lap this morning snoozing, wouldn't be here had it not been for that day. My attitude towards the importance of life and living was completely different from that moment on.
Personally, I will never watch the live feed again. I will never forget it, but I don't think I need to look back that closely again. I'll always watch documentaries and shows on 9/11, but not the live feed.
I'd rather keep looking forward.
posted by El Capitan at 11:52 AM
1 Comments:
Allison said...
The live feed is rough. Watching the people jump to their death and reading people's accounts was chilling to say the least.
8:27 PM