BBC News – 2:00 PM
On September 11th itself, the “story” of the day was distinctly lacking in a narrative structure. The footage displayed, the time delay between shots playing and audio all revealed the apparent and understandable lack of cohesion in the report. Although Osama Bin Ladin’s involvement was already suspected in the attacks, but the blame game was running rampant through the program; the shots cut jaggedly from Palestinian protestors in the streets of East Jerusalem to confident analysts in suits. Still, there was an air of attempted journalistic integrity. Between the interviews with Yassar Arafat and Hamas’s spiritual leader, was an activist laying out his hope, tragically in hindsight, that the Arabs and Muslim religion wouldn’t be blamed collectively. It contrasted strangely with the depiction of Palestinians as ostensibly obvious collaborators in the terrorist attacks.
If the first clip was chaotic, the second was just bleak. It showed carefully cut images of the New York stock exchange opening, with the “decimated skyline” of downtown Manhattan. This time there was a story to be told, and it was one of a tragically slow recovery for New York and the United States. Everything the viewer was exposed to was broken and disillusioned, which contrasted sharply with the feelings of unity so pertinent in my own memories. In a lot of ways, I found it far more depressing than the initial reaction, as the BBC’s story only seemed to bring a greater sense of hopelessness and loss, perhaps replacing the confusion that marked the actual event.
CBC- 8:00 PM
On 9/11, the eight o’clock news began with a recap of the day, initially focusing on the Pentagon in Washington DC. It was well structured, edited and fluidly told. The point was clear: motives, political implications and anything to happen in the future was not yet known, so speculation was kept to a minimum. Discussions of evacuating DC with coupled with clips showing it. Every voiceover was matched with a corresponding piece of footage. The sequence of the day was all that made sense, but I have actually never seen such a comprehensive recounting of it. It was straightforward, calm and incredibly informative.
The second clip nationalized the incident, focusing almost exclusively on Canada’s reaction to the attacks. Detailing the lively debate in Canadian parliament as well as the latest figures coming in from the stock market, this segment was mostly sound bytes from politicians and economic analysts. It was really interesting to consider how the United States’ neighbor grappled with military spending, respect for international law and moral obligations to Western values in the face of 9/11, and the number of points of view packed into the segment definitely revealed the diversity it was attempting to explore. As somebody who experienced 9/11 from DC, I gave little time to consider the impact it had on country’s not directly involved in the attack and its aftermath (US, Iraq and Afghanistan). Yet, the economic and philosophical questions permeated every aspect of every society, as shown so eloquently in this piece of news.