9/11 Media Coverage
The attacks that took place on September 11, 2001 were one of the biggest tragedies in the history of the United States. It is reported that in these attacks 2,996 people were killed and there was at least $10 billion dollars in property and infrastructure damage. As soon as the attacks took place, media coverage began. Everyone was shocked at what had just happened and no one could believe that the United States was under attack. Media coverage of this event lasted for months and months. One interesting media coverage article about the 9/11 attacks is the New York Times article How Accurate Are Memories of 9/11? by Ingfei Chen which I read a few years ago. This article has stayed in the back of my mind because it presents an interesting issue that has to do with the President of the United States and 9/11 that not many of us are familiar with.
The main concern of this article is the fact that President George W. Bush’s stories on how he heard the news about the 9/11 attacks are inconsistent. In his first version, Bush claims that he was outside a classroom in a school when he saw on TV that a plane hit the tower. In his second version, Bush claims that it was Karl Rove, his senior adviser, who broke the news to him by saying there was an accident involving a plane. Finally, Bush gave a third version of his story, where he claims to have seen the plane fly into the tower on a TV set. Three different versions of such a tragic event? So which version is it?
These alterations sparked a lot of controversy. What worsened the situation was that this was the President of the United States of America. The controversy went up to the point that some Americans started to think that the President might have been involved in a conspiracy to attack the United States. How could he not remember the way in which he was informed about the fact that this country was under a terrorist attack? These things don’t happen often. Actually, they barely happen. American was under a brutal attack and the President of our country was not sure about how he heard the news?
People claim that there are many different possible explanations for this. Some of these explanations include that Bush’s alterations were due to the stress he was experiencing. Other explanations include the fact that Bush could have been nervous when asked this question. A more simplistic explanation according to scientists is the fact that his memory failed him because the human memory changes over time. Whatever the explanation is, it is still shocking that the President of the United States does not remember correctly what exactly he was doing when his country was under attack.