Focus 580; Media Coverage of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, continued

Journalism here at the University Illinois I'm sitting in this morning for David Inge. Today we're focused 580 we're talking about the way the media have covered the horrendous events which took place on Tuesday and what has happened subsequent to that we have been talking with several practicing working journalists including the Lynn Sweet of The Chicago Sun Times early this morning and Dana Milbank who is the Washington Post's Washington White House correspondent. But here in the studio we have Paul Downey who is Station Manager of the bee ICD And joining us on by phone is the Kin Shriner who is news director of the CIA TV also in champagne and also Tom Rogers who's the news director. All three of these gentlemen are involved in the process of of trying to present a coherent and accurate package of news as it comes becomes available in the in the wake of

the events since Tuesday. And it is not been easy. It never is when you have this kind of a story which is a ongoing breaking story with pieces of information coming from coming at you from every direction. I guess to kind of keep this off I'll ask you Paul how doubly ICD has managed this and what have been some of the problems you've had to deal with and dealing with the story of this magnitude. I think we've managed it well. It's impossible really to judge. Your effectiveness because it's such a breaking story everything is happening so so rapidly. We have an obligation to our network and to our viewers to make sure that we get the most timely information in the best possible manner. We're basically wide open. We are an NBC affiliate. We have an obligation to our network to carry their programming and the network has made the decision that they will go Wall to wall coverage on this horrific tragedy and we fully support their

decision challenges locally. Obviously to try to find opportunities to deliver your local news because this event clearly has had an enormous impact on our community. And so the challenges are to juggle and to look for opportunities to deliver your local information while still make making sure that we carry the significant events that are happening at the national level on the station management side of course to you throw in the other factor and that is we are a business we are a commercial television station. I have an obligation to 50 some employees over there to have to pay salaries and we have obligations to our to our businesses to air commercials and to make sure that they're that they can conduct business. When is the appropriate time to do that. So these all factors are coming into play as we as we proceed in in the days and frankly the hours and the hours ahead. Tom you're sitting here next to me I'll ask you the same question How do you deal with something of this magnitude.

Well like Paul it's said that we you know we have to balance our coverage. You know the way the local community is reacting to this and what you know how is it pertinent to this area and what people are thinking and how people are reacting with the national coverage and the breaking coverage it goes on. We have of the. Obligation as part of an unwritten pact with our listeners to to to keep them informed and to discuss what's going on as well. We've been going wall to wall as well but balancing the way NPR has done locally with local discussions like we're doing today. This is this is part of the new decision making process in the news department as well the decision to have programs such as such as Focus 580 running during the day so people can call in discuss and in you know think about what's going on besides trying to catch up with the with the with the the latest of the coverage which we're seeing for example the prayer service now and for the latest events from Washington and New York.

Speaking of calling in I should give our listeners that know those numbers if you're calling from the Champagne Urbana area the numbers are 2 3 3 3 9 4 5 5. That's 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 and if you're coming from outside the area it's 1 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 1 800 2 2 2 9 4 5 5. Kin Shriner are you on line with us to now. No. One of the things that struck me about the coverage especially from television's standpoint is that it has been done wall to wall with no commercials. And to me people have to understand what that means in terms of cost. You're not having advertisers support the the incredible amount of technology and the costs that are associated with covering a story like this 24/7. And while it's only been has been 24/7 it's been 24 hours and it started early on Tuesday morning it has not

stopped I don't think. I think some of the networks might have might have be might be falling off a little bit. But I know that from what I can see it's still going on with very little commercial time. Is that fairly accurate. Paul that is accurate and the networks excuse me. Have aired no commercials no promotions no breaks of any kind whatsoever in the entire coverage since the tragedy occurred at the local level WIC DTV has in fact begun airing commercials in our news programming. But we have not aired any of our syndicated programming other the only programming we're airing locally is our news broadcasts and we did make a decision yesterday that we would start airing commercials during those broadcasts we aired no commercials whatsoever on Tuesday. And you know we clearly thought that was the right decision and economics are not the most important factor is you know right now it's the families and victims of this tragedy. But at some

point and we're hearing this from our viewers as well that they do want to get back to normalcy. They do want to see their regular programming and our clients as well want to see us begin to hear the commercials that that they have purchased you know doing by Kim Shriner of the destructor of WCI a TV here in Champaign. Ken what has been your your take on the way the media where you the media has actually covered the story and. No sorry this is not I got the wrong the wrong person I guess. Tom sitting next to me or of course it's a moot point to talk about advertising because NPR is a publicly supported radio station and therefore there's no advertising but if when you look at the way the NPR has covered the story there's also been wall to wall What's been your impression of their the quality of their coverage. Let me just for clarification NPR does have underwriting with the underwriting has been suspended indefinitely and is running sort of a blanket

thanks to listeners and supporters every now and then but underwriting otherwise is still gone from NPR's coverage has been like are running sort of a running commentary not running commentary but or running coverage of what's been going on is breaking news mixed with you know the assessments and comments from newsmakers and from people who are assessing the situation and you know an academic way and other ways in that still goes on. There is a little bit less coverage as the days go on I mean less time spent on the air less while wall coverage is the time goes on. We had been running overnight broadcasts where people were allowed to call in phone their phone in their opinions. But it's been sort of the coverage I think pretty much what we expect from NPR to bring you breaking news but also to step back and

try to analyze the the larger picture. Our caller online has been waiting a long time and I want to thank that person for hanging on and all the patience you've shown. Do you have any questions for our guests. I just had a comment. I was driving home last night and I was listening to the radio up the aisle and I caught a brief interview on the BBC with a U.S. journalist I believe whose previous work worked for either ABC or CBS and CNN. And I think you know works for media channel dot org and he was saying that he's not a media basher He's a media professional but that he did think that there was a surprise. Lack of context and background in the reporting and he cited two examples one that in May of this year Colin Powell and the Bush administration paid the Taliban Forty three million dollars. And that's from a Las Angeles Times article from May 22nd and also that when the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan the CIA trained a psalm of bin

Laden as a terrorist to commit terrorist acts against the Soviet forces. And I think a lot of that kind of information a lot of putting this in historical and political context hasn't been occurring even with the wall to wall coverage and even the BBC had to cut him off in the almost mid sentence to go to a different kind of reporting. And I guess I would be interested to hear your response to your perspective on that and I think it's really important that places like al get information like that because there is this kind of drumbeat that we are going to war. And a lot of the in from a. Not complicate that complicates our foreign relations foreign policy isn't readily available and a lot of the reporting I think is just playing on people's emotions and not putting them in a much broader context. Well I think in in a sense that the fact that you heard that

on Al from the BBC is evidence that we are trying to bring it as much context as possible. And from a number of different sources we are not tied into simply covering are you getting you know getting coverage from NPR we are. We have gone to the BBC during the regular times that we've gone to the BBC and on special occasions as well of the last three days. We have tried to bring in people on this campus and from other places on our talk programs that have different perspectives on the situation. And those are you know individual facts and figures that come out on background as they come out. I think all of us are going through a form of information overload in what's been going on in the past three days. And I assume that the role that the different perspectives will continue to to come out as we as we progress through this. I'd like to commend you for for the coverage but again it was

the only place that I heard it and that was very brief and it wasn't developed or was not something I'm hearing in the broader mainstream. Well and and that's and that's that's a positive attribute of the media system here is that that you can find perspectives for any any type of perspective almost you know fairly fairly readily these days. When you combine the number of of channels available on your television and the number of radio stations out there and the number of websites you can go to the perspective in context you can get on stories like this is almost a almost limitless. And I think to the mainstream media speaking as an NBC affiliate will in fact get into those issues as further evidence is developed in a more clearer picture is coming into focus as to who may be responsible for this but you know in the first three days and this is you know three days after the attack this is a pure domestic story still. There are

thousands of people unaccounted for this entire country has just been riveted by this tragedy. And as this story becomes more international in its scope and as more individuals are identified as potential suspects then I do believe that the contacts not only will be brought clear and focused and must be brought into focus. You know but the reality is that you know this country's foreign relations policy is just so intertwined and so intricate and complicated and the relationships have been forged with all types of individuals and countries that wherever and however this story develops there will be a U.S. connection somewhere. You know it will. So it's the old adage when the United States sneezes everybody else catches a cold and this is exactly what we're seeing there a lot of elements at work here at play in my own career as a correspondent in Asia and Latin America. You would see a policy that Washington would initiate. And it would be in this country. OK they've said this fine but where you are working

say in Southeast Asia or wherever you may have been or wherever may have been you see the incredible ripple effect in fact it's not a ripple it's a tsunami and it has a tremendous impact on people and that and that part of the world and the reverberations. We don't feel in this country we're feeling them. Now I think we've been joined by Kim Shriner the news director of the CIA TV Are you on with us Ken. Good morning. Good morning Ken. We've been talking about the the way the local affiliates of the major networks have been dealing with the story obviously because there's been wall to wall coverage by the networks. You have had a you have had the opportunity to do probably the kind of things you want to do but at the same time everybody understands why that's the case. How have you managed to deal with the local side of the story and how are you pursuing that that element. Well that element has actually been quite easy to find because people have not been holding back at all as far as their reactions

to what's taken place and what has happened here is perhaps the the biggest story since World War 2 and people are reacting to it similarly to the way we're reacting to it. That makes the story easier to tell it. You mentioned emotionalism and I think that's really what we've seen the last couple days both nationally and locally is that the the people who are stunned and shocked I don't even think that most American people have gotten over being shocked or stunned enough to be angry. We haven't even seen that yet. So locally what we've been doing is trying to find out how people are reacting because. Their reactions are so strong and that part of it has been so evident up to this point that that has carried the story certainly there have been the stories about airport

security donations the mail being slowed down and I think everybody understands that but the overwhelming story for the last couple days has been how shocked and stunned everybody is not just in New York and Washington but here in central Illinois. I suspect everybody will have the image of those two buildings crumbling the way they did just burned into their in their minds through this their lives it's something you'll just never forget. Right and I've been in this business for almost 30 years and I the only thing I can really compare it to visually. There are two stories Oklahoma City and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Those images are what people remember and that's why the stories have such tremendous impact but because of the loss of life and the impact on America and the images here that's why this story is the biggest thing America has ever seen.

And a good deal of Americans saw all that taking place live. Exactly. You can't say about the other two incidents exactly for. See I think CNN may have covered the challenger in that we have a very limited audience. When you think of the technology involved in the story the fact that television you know for years there's been the talk of television can do certain things very well in print so I can do things very well but in this particular case this is been a television story for the most part at least the early on it has been just an amazing display of professionalism I think on the part of the people who are handling that equipment who are able to get those kinds of shots are able to be on the scene to do what they have to do it's been I think maybe people in this country and viewers listeners and whatever can be perhaps a bit spoiled by the sheer magnitude of the kind of coverage the kind of the quality of the coverage that we're getting you know of all the different angles we've seen this story we not only

saw the crumbling of the towers the aftermath we saw the impact actually taking place. And we can't say that about Oklahoma City. And that's why I think this story is more like the Challenger explosion where we actually saw the disaster happen the moment it happened. And this is why this story transcends many other stories. Certainly the Persian Gulf the war where you saw virtually nothing. Except a couple days later a bunch of burning oil wells and some of the most riveting accounts of this took place by home video. Yep and I mean how many how many people down on the on the ground had video cameras. Yeah my contention is that the greatest stories or the most memorable stories of the twentieth century and all the late 20th century after the advent of home video were in fact shot by amateur photographers that everybody remembers Rodney King that was shot entirely by somebody with with a home video camera.

It wasn't hidden and it wasn't shot by any kind of journalist. This was the first major event where we had so much video going at the same time when the incident happened. Somebody actually had a tape trained on the first hit before the first hit happened. I don't think that. Never happen our phone lines are full of you have people who are trying to call in and to ask some questions let me get a couple of people on the line here. This once again the numbers to call to join us are 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 If you're calling from Champaign Urbana 3 3 3 9 4 5 5 or outside the area it's 1 800 to 2 2 9 4 5 5 1 800 2 2 2 1 4 5 5 Line 4 you're on with us. Hello. But what line is a line for. OK after you read my first comment about it Edwards should be commended for giving up the marriage as you've already talked about giving up their income and incidentally to shareholders if they don't know it's going to.

But anyway. If they talk about that business about it and I don't have his name will be the leader that they think may be behind Osama bin Laden had been loud and yes I am. I heard that on network television so that isn't only on NPR and I think that's about comparable to if you have a policeman who is a career law officer and he goes bad I mean that and that turns into a rogue cop. Do you blame the police force for having trained him as a as a cop and given him a gun and told him not to shoot I mean. The fact that years and years ago it was to the country's advantage to be trained bin Laden then in combating communism which was our battle to end doesn't it. I mean that doesn't

excuse Sam or condemn the United States because the man has turned a what is for us a rogue cop one of saying is that the people have been talking about the sensational coverage. Most of them have been young whippersnappers who wouldn't remember World War Two but there's been nothing like the group but yours that were routinely in Life magazine I mean I knew a woman who had been was in the Italian campaign who could look at Life magazine because of the pictures there and it doesn't even compare with the anti-war coverage by the television network of the Vietnam War. I mean this has been very neat and clean and perhaps to meeting lane somebody was criticized early. Somebody was criticizing the media earlier in the last half of the program for showing falling bodies what we saw were just specks in the air and in fact people didn't realize at first that they were bodies that the people that were on the scene.

We had we this has been an extremely neat clean cabarets in fact it's been detached a day. The pictures of the brain are going into the buildings are from a distance. We were not there. I really I mean there's been rather been most of the coverage in the BBC which is what I've seen I can't read newspapers or comment you know what I mean is I think you're exactly right sir and I think that's a credit to the technology have in having made these consumer cameras so good that you really have there the coverage is seems almost seamless. You're not going from black and white to color you're not going from a $300000 camera to a $500 camera all the stuff looks incredibly good to the point where it does seem like it's produced like it is a movie. And this is what you hear from you know constantly from witnesses

or people who saw it on TV they said it looked like a movie. And that's no that's no coincidence. I think too the the technology that we spoke about earlier works to our disadvantage as a society because it is our ability to broadcast such images live to reach everybody across the country instantaneously that works to our disadvantage and that's exactly why terrorists strike in the manner that they do because they know that the image will be broadcast instantaneously around the world. Don't take it one step further because video is so pervasive and because the. In public is craving safety now more than their privacy. I think that along with the new more restrictive FAA regulations you're going to see cameras on airplanes. You're going to see cameras at the airport. You're going to see cameras everywhere. And this is the price I think the American public is now willing to pay for safety.

There is they're going to start sacrificing their privacy but knowingly and and readily when you talk about when you have people talking about declaring war you when when a country declares war you have to measure what happens when that actually happens and as Lynn Sweet pointed out it's only happened five times in our history. If if if this becomes a formal declaration of war which it probably will not but no matter what you want to call it formal informal when you declare war you certainly you are faced with giving up certain freedoms. It's just a fact. When we declared war and World War 2 it was giving up certain freedoms we went on rationing we had all kinds of things happening to us the government watch as you move more closely tracking down people they think are saboteurs or whatever and so we're going to be faced with that if indeed we are engaged in a sustained effort a sustained war like they're talking about against terrorism. Remember those pictures in Life magazine first of all were put in the magazine that came out only once a week so as a weeks worth of hemming and hawing about what goes on in that magazine and second

of all there were government people looking at the pictures and saying yes we can print that no we can't print that there was a limited amount of censorship in World War 2. But I agree with the with the caller that the media coverage in this particular case is a bit sanitized that the reality of the situation is that people are getting killed and there are gruesome images as a result of that but if you look at the images from the Vietnam war from World War 2 the images that you saw conveyed in those crises far exceeded anything that you've seen over the last two or three days and and there's a lot of criticism for some of the photos that were published in some of the New York newspapers and around the country. But you question whether or not it was you know. I believe that for journalistic integrity that the newspapers had every right to publish such images. Nobody can dispute that it actually happened. And I think it's also you can say that there's been some restraint shown in the use of technology and we know that digital technology will allow you to zoom in on some of those

images of people falling from the building up to a very close level and actually you could probably get to the point where you could actually see their faces and that has not been done. It has been restrained and I think you know some people would say yes it's been restrained but at some point you have to make a decision as a news director I guess as a journalist. At what point do you impose this kind of self-censorship on yourself in a what time what point do you feel it's necessary to to show the reality the horror of this and how do you do that when it's all happening right when it's live. Yeah. The minute you do something like that you really can't stand analyze that you have to go on to what's next. It's very difficult. We have some more callers let me take a caller on line 3 you're on your own with with us again. You have any questions for our guests. Yes just a couple comments first I've appreciated very much the academic discussions of terrorism of what it is and how it works because I think that an understanding of that is very important deciding how how to what to

do next. I really appreciate that the program that Bill Moyers has done on PBS and it was an excellent program. And and. And I'm concerned. Does a citizen of the Champaign-Urbana community that we have so many international students some of whom are new here and don't understand what's going on and how it happens here and who maybe on accused or harassed of some of what you know of what's going on and I listen to the BBC Tuesday night and I was really pleased to have a different point of view and to hear news about what was happening in Europe and other parts of the world what people oh some place else think what their governments think and I'm I'm wondering how we can have more coverage of the of how the rest of the world sees this and what they think because I don't want us to act unilaterally and feel like we're imposing something at it. But terrorism is something that affects the softball how. How can. We understand

what other people are thinking and where they're coming from. I think one of the early positive developments since the tragedy has been the ability of Colin Powell in particular to generate widespread and universal international support for the U.S. and its ability now to go out and attack terrorism. I think that some of the reports that you're hearing today in fact are praising Mr. Powell in his efforts to garner widespread international support to articulate a policy that says the world community will not tolerate what just happened to the United States and I think the caller is right on the money this cannot be. And I don't believe it will be the United States response to terrorism. I do believe you will see widespread international support for U.S. policy beginning with NATO and to keep things a little bit closer to home she had mentioned the you know the

fear that international students must be going through and faculty and staff members and other people in the community. And you're right the Champaign-Urbana is a very large number of people from from from other countries here. And I think it's a tribute to the community that as far as I know in what I've heard from the last of the last 12 hours maybe maybe something was different but in talking with the mom at the central Illinois mosque they have not had any reports of harassment aside from I think a phone call or two early on. But I think that's that's a testament to to what kind of community champagne Urbana is it's just it is it's a different place versus what happened in Chicago which you may have heard with hundreds of teens and others that were vandalizing and harassing and attacking folks of Muslim religion so credit to the community.

There's a there's always the fear and always the possibility of some knee jerk reaction to something like this and we saw it happened. I'm not I don't want to say it was a knee jerk reaction was kind of a calculated reaction but when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in World War 2 the decision was made in Washington to round up Japanese Americans and put them into concentration camps and it was you know a very sad and dark chapter in our history and we did that to these Americans who had no business being in these concentration camps. But this time around I've noticed that the officials have been very very open and vocal about not doing that to telling people you know you cannot. No brush ever. You know painter by with the same brush you're not going to condemn an entire group of people entire religion or entire area of the world for the actions of a tiny group of people that you are essentially well on the fringe. So I think that's a very been very good message out of Washington that that we've all heard and maybe people are taking that to heart I hope so. Got another.

Another caller here thank you very much for your call. You're online too. Yes yes. Yes I just like to make some comments and maybe elicit some response from your guest. I think I'd like to tackle some of them. I did put forth earlier by some of the callers that sometimes the commercial news media is a little hard today. I think what it boils down to now myself I've for a long time I've looked at public radio and public television for a lot of my worthwhile news. And the reason that is. Because I think they're not they're not sponsored by commercial interests. And since the commercial media is I think been there they're obliged to try to seek ratings you know and to try to sensationalize things in order to get their ratings ahead of the other competitive competing news sources. And I think in public radio you know a more open dialogue available I don't think this very conversation would be possible on a commercial sponsored program. Let me let me. This is a public radio news director do a little little defending of the commercial

news establishment there. There is no money being made in what's been going on the last 72 hours. I don't think that money I agree with that yeah the I and and I'm not trying to disparage any individual person in that system. I just think that by being tied up with commercial sponsors that it precipitates that. Well of course if you look at the alternative if there were no commercial television news stations in this country certainly nothing then. Right but there were none in this country think what would happen. Who would who would pay for this kind of coverage that they were here ever seeing right now I'm not in favor of that in favor of commercial news. But I think also there is some culpability there involved. I think you know I think the caller has a legitimate point I mean I think that you know commercial news outlets are always subject to pressures of one type or another but I do think the commercial networks do an outstanding job of trying to balance those. I think the

development of the 24 hour cable news outlets the more outlets there are for news I think helps to filter some of the some of the impact that might be felt by pressure from the break and I think you need to leave us you have any final point you'd like to make before we let you off the hook here. Well I think one of the callers are saying. Extremely good points and we take these things into account. Every second that we're on we don't want to just throw things on the air and not be responsible not be held responsible for what it is we're doing. In the age of live TV again with cameras virtually everywhere in the hands of almost everybody they're going to be lots of things that we see that we don't like and I go back to Rodney King. That story may not have ever happened if it wasn't for that video camera. And we're going to start seeing a lot more of that now as America's need for

safety becomes the first priority over their need for privacy. And the question I think all Americans and viewers should ask themselves is are they ready for that. I think it's good for them as Kin Shriner who's news director of the C.I.A. TV joining us by phone from from from Champaign can thank you very much for coming on with us. Thank you. All right. Take care. One of the things that McCain was talking about I noticed you know the film I think the footage of the first plane hitting the tower that came because a doctor had his camera and happen to be looking up in the air and saying look that plane is pretty low and he kind of panned up there and saw that and got the plane just as it went into the building and then I think the next thing you saw because of what what had happened he and the others went running toward the building and I think the last the next thing you hear even though the I think the video camera may not be focusing on intercept maybe the ground him saying I'm a

doctor. What can I do to help you know I think this is entirely right the technology that is now in people's hands I think of myself as a reporter in Vietnam. Had I had the little camera that I have now that the Sony camera that I that I use maybe cost a thousand dollars I mean I can't imagine the kind of coverage I would have had it had I had that camera just would have added a whole different dimension to it. But that again I think there are a lot of people would say well I I would have just simply dropped the camera. After after after catching something like that knowing that you know something like that was going on like the doctor said you know he his first impulse was to go you know find a way he could help. At which point having a video camera would be rather useless. You know I look at the video cameras too and I'm not so certain that the video cameras themselves are the things that people in this country need to brace themselves in terms of increased security I think that there are going to be things that need to take place on the front and the video camera

captures what happens on the back end. Right. But there's going to have to be an awful lot of things done on the front end to prevent any incidents from occurring that the video cameras would ultimately record. I think the idea of security and the idea of of what we're hearing about now if we actually get into assists esteemed kind of warfare here. Some of these areas that the different people argue against for example the positioning of cameras on city streets and high crime areas has been interpreted as an infringement upon individual rights. It's been interpreted as a as a as something to do with civil rights and I wonder now how that argument will be made in the light of the fact that because of our new this new situation we are in the 21st century. The first war of the 21st century so to speak. If people would be willing to relinquish some of those rights if they won't mind having those cameras big

brother so to speak up on the air watching everything they do as they walk along the streets that's going to be an interesting question for people to deal with. I think there have been some some polls done and these are obviously spur of the moment polls of course. Not much in people are in the midst of a such a horrendous. Act that people haven't been able to take the time to step back and think about it. But. It sounds like a good number of people are in favor of seeing some increased steps even if they do mean you know the loss of civil rights in some cases and that's you know it's something that I suppose you know maybe maybe opinions will change as we as we step back and and it's a week or two weeks or a month after this happened it's a little bit off the subject but you know to the extent that such cameras can act as a deterrent then I think people might support it but you would hesitate to think that the policy of the country would be focused more on installing cameras as opposed to attacking the core issues that may result in people having problems. The other issue too with cameras and it's a media policy that that I had as a

journalist that. You know as a news organization covering events that you are allowed to utilize footage that is captured in a public setting then if there is a crime that occurs in a public setting across the street that any passer by may notice then that footage is in fact available for you to broadcast as long as you're not invading somebody's home or some person's place of business I think that those rules that are applied in the news business can be applied to society that if you're good if you're conducting criminal terrorist behavior in a public setting that any passer by could witness that what would be the problem with installing a camera that may actually record that same behavior so a lot of issues to debate. Got a couple more callers here let's line one your own with a little focus 580. I want to focus my body. Thanks for taking my call. Sure. When you had a fall this I just sort of know my.

I think I know my limits on not how much I can take in terms of well just everything that happened in the past couple of days. When we have dealt with it is basically I haven't seen the images. I haven't watched the TV. I. I could look at a picture of a pile of rubble past but I I don't want to picture the the World Trade Center going down like it didn't. I live in New York for 12 years and is very familiar with the area and then the building any number of times. I just don't want to have those images so I've relied on the radio. NPR's been my best friend past couple days. And when I can't take anymore I turn it off but I'm where TV is I've heard my eyes on it. Well I think you're. Your observations are the way I believe a lot of people are having to deal with this is not something that you can watch over and over and not have any emotional reaction to it's been so horrible to look at this.

But I feel like I've got the rest of my life to look at those pictures. I don't. Yeah. It's just overwhelming. But I think the people who are who criticize the media for showing that as of as we heard in the previous segment are missing the point I mean if you don't want to see them then you can certainly not watch them and you can certainly turn off this. I think people are making choices you know. So you know let me assure you that there are a lot of people in the media are doing the same thing for a certain amount of time even I said I can't watch this I've got to go outside do something else. You know it's just it's just overwhelming. I think that it's very difficult for people who don't want to watch it because it's the only thing that they can watch. So I used to watch it so to that extent I think it's there is some criticism that might be valid. And the other thing is that it's we are in a completely different world right now. I mean I think you go back to the initial point that during the World War Two during Vietnam during the periods of conflict in this country there was always a period of time in which these images were condensed

edited and put into focus in a context before they were disseminated to the American people. This war is instantaneous and it's all happening as we see it and nobody really knows the true impact that that can have on a psyche. I think it's another interesting point here is that people forget that journalists are human beings first and journalists second. And I think you you've seen that I mean I think you've seen a display of compassion and also concern on the on the on the faces on the on the actions of the journalists who have been working this story. They have not I don't think been overly intrusive. They haven't shove cameras in people's faces they've been trying to do this in a way that's respectful. At the same time dealing with their own emotions which you know I having done these kinds of stories believe me there are things that you see over and over and over again you get burned into your into your mind and your emotions and it's

not easy to put that aside and say OK now I've got to go do the story. You've got to compartmentalize and it's not always easy to do that. I just want to say we're being joined now by by Jeannie Gabbett who is the managing editor for Reuters North America. And Jane is joining us from phone from Chicago. Jamie welcome. Yes good have good afternoon. I suspect you've been pretty busy the last few days. Yes. It's been quite a quite a story. Reuters is right now for absolutely one of the largest if not the largest news agency in the world you've got reporters all over the world how have you managed to look at the story from an international perspective I know that you've been doing that been doing your job. Good job out of New York but what about the rest of the world how do you manage to do that. Sure. Really just the way we do any big global story. I mean we have lots of we have lots of news cordoning coordinating teleconferences we do a lot of you know coordinating by message back and forth. We I think for us it's

been as if it's any story like this is to is to make sure that you cover all the angles and to make sure that we're not reporting it from an American perspective and certainly since there's such a that has been easy to do because in the story there's been such a global outpouring we had the changing of the guard in London when we were playing the Star-Spangled Banner. You know we have. Church services around the globe and we have. Of course you know correspondents in Kabul giving us the reaction from Afghanistan even if there was any time where it was important to cover a story globally. The certainly is one. One of the things we talked about early on in the journey was the difference between the way television has covered the electronic media have covered the story in the way print the print side is done and of course Reuters represents both of those areas because you're providing information for both sides but a lot of what you're putting up goes into into the to the print the print side. How have you tried to make this a story that

differs a bit from the story that we're seeing on television. Well I don't know if it's certainly a multimedia story I mean it's hard to argue this is a picture story. First let's face it everyone watched the towers how many times we all watched the towers blow up. But from the print side certainly we were trying to get as many interviews as possible with with victims and people on the scene and you know trying to draw the picture for people who aren't who aren't there and also there's the aspect that it's been said what you're seeing on TV doesn't begin to capture what's what it's actually like. So by having you know our journalists there. Describing it in the most colorful language we can and getting as many interviews as we can. How many people do you have working a story. You know I couldn't even give you an an estimate. I mean I suppose the good news if there could be any good news from a reporting side is that of course New York is our largest bureau. We have about 140 journalists. But you know that doesn't mean we've got the

whole our Washington bureau is our second largest bureau. But then of course we've got the journalists all around the globe to chance I couldn't really even give you a number. Certainly you know this is the type of story that registers every bit of a resource that. Are you located anywhere near the World Trade Center. We actually I mean oddly enough we had been located at 199 Water Street up until May when we moved into our new office building at Forty second and Broadway. So we're actually. Quite fortunate because the 199 facility which is now empty it is closed and so we we actually are you know we're in Midtown now so we were away from it physically. So we're not we weren't we haven't had to evacuate the newsroom or anything like that. Let me take a call here. Your line to you're on with us within the studio. Oh I'm very pleased this is pretty close to the end of the show I wasn't sure you'd let me and so it's a good time for one quick question.

Well I was listening a little bit and I heard someone say that the video cameras catch the backend so to speak and we need more friends in sort of knowledge and went on to say that that was sort of an increase in security and I think maybe that would be an erosion of some of our freedoms sort of a fortress America building toward that idea. So I was thinking why not give a little different twist to this idea and somehow. Make these tools these video cameras available to the people who think they have a maybe a legitimate gripe against United States. The policies of some of the corporations are where they make capitalist policies so that they can produce videos of what's happening to them. Maybe in Colombia or in Nigeria as it sees places where some of the awful stories are coming out about what's happening to villagers and things and have them have access to the tools and also a TV station so they can express themselves and get there. What's happening to

them. Maybe it would be sort of a program titled The news we don't want to see or something like that where where they would have a place where they could get their idea of what's happening to them why they think it's wrong. And then this could be part of the discussion in the illumination of why people are so angry with them. It's the United States and perhaps that would sort of diffuse or give at least a chance for discussions to come up. Interesting observation. I think that what we have here is well obviously it's unique in all of our lives that none of us have ever experienced anything like this and maybe never again so I always think probably you can count on that happening again if so I hope not. You know well I hope not too but I mean if if there's not a profound example of a push toward changing what's what people are thinking about us when maybe we could somehow find out what they I think you know about this.

I don't know you know. They're they're trying to say that bin Laden is responsible for this but who gets to hear what bin Laden the saying I've never really heard him say I have explored his web pages reading but what he hasn't been exactly forthcoming. Thank you for your call he actually has been interviewed on one of the news magazines not too long ago. Right. He when he has been interviewed he's been in a cave someplace in Afghanistan so it's not exactly easy to reach I think for approaching the the end of our of our time here it's going to have to say goodbye to all of our guests. Gavotte I thank you for joining us from Chicago. Thank you. And talking to you in the future here soon. OK take care. And Paul Donohue who's the station manager of TV here in Champagne Urbana thank you for coming into the studio today Paul McLaren and all your your great comments and news director and of course Jay Pierce who was here before and Kin Shriner joined us from the CIA TV by phone also from champagne and Lynn

Sweet from the Washington from The Chicago Sun-Times Washington bureau and Dana Milbank who was the White House correspondent for The Washington Post. We had quite a lineup of people here to share their experiences their expertise and their knowledge and I want to thank you all for joining us.