The Selling of 9-11

It has been six months since 9-11 and already we have had a formal anniversary. Stilted moments of silence, child poets, giant laser beams, and solemn speeches brought out the ghosts that have yet to be put to rest and never will, so long as there is a profit to be made on their continued haunting.

HBO, Showtime, and FX have all announced plans to produce TV movies about the events, but on March 10th, CBS took the lead with a commercial-free special, 9/11. An important documentary to some and exploitative reality programming to others, the nearly uninterrupted two-hour broadcast of footage shot inside the World Trade Center provided an insider's view of the results of the terrorist attacks. Gaining an estimated third of the American viewing population, 9/11 was profitable, but at the expense of many of the victims' families who felt the timing was inappropriate. Although they publicly voiced their concern, it did not change the network's decision to air the program.

CBS defended the program by explaining that no deaths were filmed and that the footage would be "respectful." Yet, this is completely untrue; death is heard over and over and over and over and over again, as people jump or fall from the burning towers. CBS' ignorant justification shows just how visual our culture is. As we hear a woman screaming while she burns to death, narrator Jules Naudet explains: "The image was so terrible; I made a decision not to film it. It's not something anybody should see, or want to see." Isn't it also a sound no one should want to hear? One can only imagine how the families of the victims felt as they listened to the constant sound of bodies slamming the pavement. Not to mention all those who now get to guess whether it was their loved one heard burning in the lobby. CBS' sensitivity is truly heartwarming.

Or, maybe CBS is simply looking at the "larger picture." Speaking to reporters after an exclusive media screening, producer Susan Zirinsky said that it's important we don't forget there's a war going on. Her attitude, borrowed from John Ashcroft, suggests the true function of 9/11 may be getting America's jingoistic blood boiling, rather than paying tribute to the heroism of the New York firemen who died and survived, which is what we are led to believe by the public service announcements and photographic tributes that support the program suggested.

Yet, it is doubtful that the thousands of families who lost loved ones in September or more recently, in Afghanistan, need such a reminder. The flags may be coming down, but no one has forgotten what happened because it is still happening. And now, as the Bush administration prepares to take their "anti-terror" campaign even further, into Iraq especially, the media is playing a large role in not letting us forget what happened on 9-11.

When Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty (a terrorist group who claimed responsibility), it should have surprised no one that the footage of his execution ended up in the hands of career sensationalist Geraldo Rivera. In between February's Olympic events, he went on NBC to announce that he possessed said footage but would not air it because it would "inspire" terrorism. Not showing it out of respect for Pearl's family seemed an afterthought. However, like the producers of 9/11, he aired the next best thing: footage of an unidentified Filipino man's head being chopped off and rolling into the bushes -- the same fate Pearl suffered. Considering the U.S.'s current involvement in both Afghanistan and the Philippines, it seems the function of this type of "world premiere" goes beyond informational; it is overtly political and shamefully exploitative. Yet, while Geraldo has always been the Jerry Springer of the news world, such media propaganda and exploitation are rarely so overt, which is precisely the case with CBS' 9/11.