Buzz Bissinger on 9-11 overkill

Agreed 100% with Buzz. There was more bad than good leading up to the 10th anniversary tributes.

 

I hate the brand, and I love how their sales are plunging into the sewer. This was just the latest reason not to go near the swill.

 

9/11 and Pearl Harbor have much in common as national tragedies, and will probably mirror each other in how each is observed as the years progress.

Each will still be important as long as the survivors live, but eventually they will pass on, as the WWII veterans are starting to do, and all that'll be left is a date in the history books. But 9/11 is still fresh in the memory of everyone, even those as young as 16 who were in kindergarten when it happened.

So I don't see a lot wrong with the overkill, although I agree the commercialization of it in the State Farm and other commercials was a bit much.

 

I loved Sports Illustrated's approach to 9/11, which was one article by Tim Layden recounting several interviews and defining the spirit of the event and sports' role in it. The end, with the Wounded Warrior who talked about how that moment of silence may not seem like much, but it means people are forced to consider the event, was very nice. The article was the first after the "Inside" section. It was only 3,000 words and was teased on the cover but not the cover story. S.L. Price on Gary Patterson was there for the people who read for the writing, and Austin Murphy took a look at Week 1 of college football for people who read for the big stories. It felt balanced. It felt the way SI should.

ESPN The Magazine, as it tends to, took it all about 10 steps too far by theming the entire issue around 9/11. ETM sees its role as a complimentary piece of the ESPN puzzle, though, so perhaps this was their equivalent of the special section many newspapers produced for Sunday papers. Either way, I'm just not sure anyone was going to read that many 9/11-based sports stories with all the other 9/11-based stories out there. That last feature, though, on buzkashi, the national sport of Afghanistan, was a very nice surprise.

 

If Pearl Harbor had been in New York, we'd be bombarded every year with that, too.

 

DC gets bombarded every year with the War of 1812 remembrance when The British burned down the White House.

 

If Des Moines had 110-story twin buildings that symbolized capitalism, there would probably be plenty of attention paid when terrorists attacked and destroyed them with hijacked commercial airliners.

 

I didn't think I'd be particularly moved by any of the remembrances and expected it to be way overplayed. But though it was overplayed, I was fairly moved by some of it. And then I saw the Budweiser clydesdale commercial, causing me to blurt out, "Oh give me a break." That was pretty much all I could take.

 

Just wait until next year. 200th anniversary. Beltway managing editors are already scheduling meetings.

 

I hear that the British are strongly lobbying DC news outlets to keep it on the low.

 

I actually would be interested in hearing what some of the 25 percent who live in poverty in Philadelphia have to say. My guess is, they would say that 9/11 didn't change the wretchedness of their lives one damn inch.

That line from Bissinger's column popped into my head this morning (which I found kinda puzzling, because I read it several days ago). Yeah, Buzz might be interested in hearing what those folks living in poverty have to say, but he wasn't interested enough to go out and actually talk to any of them, at least not for this column.

 

I had the exact same thought.