In The New York Times, Jeremy Peters and Brian Stelter write about how the media is planning to cover the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Newspapers, magazines and TV outlets have to balance the need for coverage with a need for revenue, while also being aware of the substantial baggage that comes with re-airing some of the more graphic footage.
Last week, MSNBC began to show a special three-hour documentary, “Day of Destruction, Decade of War.”
Rachel Maddow, who is co-anchoring the documentary, said Sept. 11 “is such an important event on its own terms and for its implications,” adding, “I think there’s infinite room to talk about exactly what happened that day and the decisions made by the government, right or wrong.”
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And there is the question of exactly what to do with images of the burning towers, and the many horrific scenes from that day. Newsweek decided not to use the towers at all on its cover, opting instead for just blue sky and an airplane.
Marc Burstein, the ABC News executive producer for special events, said the network had decided to use the images, noting that it had not done so since the first anniversary of the attacks.
“We will use the video,” he said, “very sparingly and very judiciously.”
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