MSNBC’s annual decision to re-air their 9/11 coverage in real time just skeeves me out. I understand public demand for that to be available in some format, just as there is public demand for all disturbing live footage throughout history. When someone linked to Monica Seles’ on-court stabbing recently, I was absolutely interested in watching it. Real-time reactions are fascinating to look back on.
Before we grieved on a massive level, before airport security evolved into a latter-day SS checkpoint, and before we were duped into the wrong war and a misleading bill bearing a convenient acronym, we watched news anchors try to put the pieces together as quickly as possible. And that is interesting. It is compelling to hear exactly when they obtained the plane footage and when Osama Bin Laden’s name was first floated as a possible suspect.
But there’s something very immediate about a cable news network re-airing footage, with no commentary or present-day context. I watched last year, in the morning before I left for work. Television is an immediate medium. It didn’t take long before I got absorbed to the point of feeling like it was happening right then. Of remembering, with total accuracy, my exact emotions from when I first saw and heard the things being replayed.
It’s powerful stuff, and MSNBC doesn’t know how to wield their footage in a responsible way. It recalls the months prior to George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, where upsetting images were constant and heavy statements about our safety were measured with alarming colors. It can beat us into an emotional pulp, and what is the benefit in that, year after year?
But hey, I’m at my parents’ this morning and they don’t have cable anyways.
