BROOKE GLADSTONE: Serving the victims of September 11th will be a challenge for charities and a story for the media for years to come. But the story of the minutes immediately after the planes hit the Twin Towers is also important and also under-covered. Thus far the press has been largely reluctant to question the strategies of the New York Fire Department, but little by little those questions are being asked. On the Media's John Solomon reports.
JOHN SOLOMON: In a story that is so raw and sensitive it may be the most raw and sensitive part. The heroic actions and tragic deaths of 343 firemen as well as other rescue personnel has been the most enduring media image of that day. Yet, strikingly, the press has done little in depth analytic reporting on what actually happened on the ground and in the buildings on the 11th. In the days afterward there were some news stories on how cities around the U.S. were re-thinking their firefighting strategies, but almost nothing on the specific incident at the Trade Center. The prevailing media narrative seemed to be that the attack and the subsequent building collapses were so unexpected that it couldn't have been planned for nor handled any differently.
STEVE PAULUS: We're all New Yorkers. Clearly New York City is facing the, the biggest crisis it's ever faced in, in its history.
JOHN SOLOMON: Steve Paulus is the general manager of the local cable all-news channel New York 1.
STEVE PAULUS: The way that city officials are portraying this as story is in a way that will be as positive throughout the country, throughout the world, so you know, you don't want to be the first guy to step out and start throwing mud at what our, our leaders are saying.
JOHN SOLOMON: The first major media organization to directly report on any aspect of the firefighting and rescue strategy was the Wall Street Journal 6 weeks after the incident. The Journal's story focused on why helicopters were not used to rescue people trapped at the top of the Trade Center. It quoted a New York police pilot saying he might have been able to land on the roof as he did after the 1993 bombing. The article also explained that the helicopter rescue had been the subject of inter-departmental squabbling. A Fire Department spokesman acknowledged that there was no plan in place for dealing with a fire on multiple floors in a skyscraper. Yet despite the provocative issues raised by the Journal, the subject came up only briefly at Mayor Giuliani's daily press conference. NY1's Steve Paulus.
STEVE PAULUS: It's very unusual for the media to -- you know, the entire New York City press corps, to fundamentally stay away from a story, but I, I can certainly understand why, being part of that media.
JOHN SOLOMON: Charles Jennings, and assistant professor of fire science at New York's John Jay College understands the very difficult position reporters are in, but he says he is disappointed with the coverage thus far.
CHARLES JENNINGS: What has been surprising to me to some extent is the degree to which the media has not asked any real questions in terms of establishing a time line for what happened when; asking questions as basic as did the Fire Department - were they aware of some of the risks in terms of the structure; was there communication between the Port Authority and the Fire Department in terms of the stability of the buildings.
JOHN SOLOMON: To get those questions answered the press faces a number of logistical challenges. The Fire Department is still very much under siege. Already shorthanded, it is trying to carry out its normal work in addition to expanded emergency responsibilities. Its officials are attending frequent funerals and memorial services. What's more, fire safety and structural engineering are very complex topics and many of the eyewitnesses are dead, and with so much else going on, the press is in triage mode. It believes it can get to the rescue story in due time. However Professor Jennings cautions that time is of the essence.
CHARLES JENNINGS: We're now entering into this post-September 11th world in which we may indeed confront the prospect of firefighters having to attempt rescue in a building that is actively under or has been under terrorist attack. I think there's an urgency to trying to open this question up and get the qui-- the, the information out there and to stimulate some public discussions!
JOHN SOLOMON: Recently the local press, most notably the New York Daily News, has slowly begun to look at these issues. They are showing a level of restraint not usually a hallmark of the hyper-competitive New York media market. One example was an October 28th Daily News story. It quoted engineering experts who contend that had a structural engineer been on site, the Fire Department might have been able to predict the towers' quick collapse. That information may have allowed some rescue personnel to evacuate earlier. It was a revelation that might make for an eye-catching tabloid front page. Instead, the story was on page 23, accompanied by the softspoken headline: Learning from Towers Disaster. Reporter Joe Calderon [sp?] wrote the story.
JOE CALDERON: It's not the first time that, that I have written something that I thought was brilliant that, that didn't get on the front page, but there is a sensitivity still; I think that's probably appropriate.
JOHN SOLOMON: Calderon says special times call for a special approach.
JOE CALDERON: Did we react differently than some other kind of story? Probably, yeah! I think at the same time I don't think that the press has like fallen down on the job. But you know, we are humans! [LAUGHS]
JOHN SOLOMON: The co-author of the original Wall Street Journal article Scott Paltrow [sp?] concedes it is difficult to focus on these questions when everyone is burying their dead. But he adds that as we seem to be in some danger and no one knows what is going to happen next, reporters need to set aside their qualms and try to find some answers. For On the Media, this is John Solomon.
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