American Television’s Live Coverage of the 9/11 Attacks

This book analyzes the narratives and news coverage of 9/11 across ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Fox News—the five most important American television news networks at the time. Though America’s collective memory of the key events of 9/11 have solidified, Paul Arras demonstrates how muddled and chaotic the experience was due to the unique difficulties television journalists faced during the event. By examining that morning’s media coverage, Arras assesses the quality of the live journalism, suggesting key differences in the television experience for audiences watching different networks and observing the consequences of differing styles of communication among anchors and other journalists. Approaching 9/11 as a unique television experience in American history, Arras locates and identifies the building blocks of America’s memory of 9/11 while also revisiting many dramatic television moments that have been forgotten. Ultimately, this book reveals the ways in which television coverage shaped the cultural meaning, collective memory, and language of 9/11 in ways that continue to resonate throughout American culture.