Anniversary Journalism

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

I understand the need for people to grieve, but as a journalist, the need - or drive might be better word - to rehash 9/11 every year is really more than I can stand.

It's the 11th anniversary. The New York paper's are treating it like any other day.
Our ad department wanted to do a tab. Because we did one last year that sold really well.

http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/188013/911-anniversary-forgotten-on-the-front-page-of-todays-new-york-times/#

Thoughts?

 

[JimmyHoward33]

Changed my mind after looking at all those fronts......not a good look for the NYT. All the others in the NY/NJ found a way to make it news with the memorial. So many not connected to NY had it, Boston Globe comes to mind.

If you're going to downplay it and take the move on stand, I'd put some kind of small tease or bug or something like the Wash Post did. They really needed the Male Plumage or whatever that says instead?

Personally I tend to agree about anniversary journalism and all, but reading my social media feeds today it seem like everyone's mind is on 9/11. Ignoring it is sort of tone deaf.

 

[HanSenSE]

10 was a milestone anniversary. 11? Not so sexy.

 

[Dick Whitman]

The fact that the actual date of this anniversary is used as shorthand for it seems to separate it from other famous anniversaries, like Dec. 7. Would a paper not have a Fourth of July reference on A1? The NYT omission is glaring. Two Chicago teacher stories - which, granted, is a very important story - but no 9/11 story? There's not a news peg of some sort they could have used? Hard to believe.

And this is from someone who doesn't exactly love the shameless profundity competition going on right now on Facebook and Twitter.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Knock knock...

Who's There?

9/11...

9/11 who?

But you said you would never forget.

 

[Norrin Radd]

Knock knock...

Who's There?

9/11...

9/11 who?

But you said you would never forget.

OK. I laughed. Hell, party of one.

And this is from someone who doesn't exactly love the shameless profundity competition going on right now on Facebook and Twitter.

This is my main irritation on 9/11, and why I for the most part stay off of social media on this day.

All the people who didn't lose anyone that day, who maybe have visited New York City once in their lives. Yet they feel the need to produce some screed about their own experiences that day, and "never forget" and all that.

"I was at work in Ohio. We watched on TV. What a tragic day!"

"I was in college in Nebraska. Couldn't believe the teacher held class. We were all so scared we were gonna get hit!"

"I'm from Wyoming. We all lost our innocence that day!"

All of the people who ran through dust clouds that day, or who had a relative in one of the towers, scoff at this foolishness. They lived it. Don't insult them. Don't minimize their grief by artificially concocting some of your own.

Put more simply: I was living in SoCal at the time. There is no way I can approach someone who actually experienced that day (whether through losing a loved one or being in NYC), look them in the eye, and say, "Yeah, that was such a tough day for all of us!"

 

[LongTimeListener]

Anniversaries are the most overdone and useless part of journalism. I'll always believe there was a meeeting at the New York Times on Sept. 12, 2001, to discuss how they'd handle the paper of Sept. 11, 2002.

That said, if the idea of the paper is to reflect what's on the minds of the community, it's hard to believe there were six or eight other events or issues that were of more interest to the readership today.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Anniversaries are the most overdone and useless part of journalism. I'll always believe there was a meeeting at the New York Times on Sept. 12, 2001, to discuss how they'd handle the paper of Sept. 11, 2002.

That said, if the idea of the paper is to reflect what's on the minds of the community, it's hard to believe there were six or eight other events or issues that were of more interest to the readership today.

Not that this is a regional tragedy by any stretch, but I can't imagine people having a problem if the NYC papers made a bigger deal out of it than other papers do...

I'm not a fan of anniversary journalism on any level, but as you said, I seriously doubt there are six more important stories than this to most New Yorkers.

 

[Mark2010]

Was just talking about that this morning. I can see arguments either way. We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries every single year (one person I know celebrates the anniversary of his divorce every year ... calls it Freedom Day). So if people want to commenorate, fine with me.

But I also get the argument that it's old news. We've seen it all, heard it all 1,000 times by now. If it helps someone to get back to "normal", that's fine with me, too.

 

[Bradley Guire]

Even on the 10th anniversary last year, trying to localize stories in middle-of-nowhere Idaho was stretching the concept of anniversary journalism. But, hey, if advertising can sell a tab, who am I to get in the way of the bottom line?

 

[Joe Lapointe]

I don't mind "anniversary journalism" most of the time. Even stuff like the Titanic. For some people (kids, if they still read papers) it's their first exposure to historic events. And sometimes anniversary journalism is a heck of a lot better than other stuff in the paper or on the web site that day. I listened this morning to the NBC coverage from 11 years ago. No TV reporter did a better job than Katie Couric, who was calm but grave, the perfect tone. Damn, she was good.

 

[Pilot]

Knock knock...

Who's There?

9/11...

9/11 who?

But you said you would never forget.

OK. I laughed. Hell, party of one.

And this is from someone who doesn't exactly love the shameless profundity competition going on right now on Facebook and Twitter.

This is my main irritation on 9/11, and why I for the most part stay off of social media on this day.

All the people who didn't lose anyone that day, who maybe have visited New York City once in their lives. Yet they feel the need to produce some screed about their own experiences that day, and "never forget" and all that.

"I was at work in Ohio. We watched on TV. What a tragic day!"

"I was in college in Nebraska. Couldn't believe the teacher held class. We were all so scared we were gonna get hit!"

"I'm from Wyoming. We all lost our innocence that day!"

All of the people who ran through dust clouds that day, or who had a relative in one of the towers, scoff at this foolishness. They lived it. Don't insult them. Don't minimize their grief by artificially concocting some of your own.

Put more simply: I was living in SoCal at the time. There is no way I can approach someone who actually experienced that day (whether through losing a loved one or being in NYC), look them in the eye, and say, "Yeah, that was such a tough day for all of us!"

My parents weren't in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, so when my mom told me about how she remembers them breaking into her Topeka, Kan. elementary school class with an announcement, I told her to shut the **** up.

 

[deskslave]

So at what point is it OK to leave it off a front page? If you can't leave it off after 11, it has to be at least 20, right? So 20? 25? 30? Hell, I've been at a paper where we got annoyed readers when we didn't put Pearl Harbor on the cover.

I guess I just don't see why a 9/11 museum story is somehow more newsworthy today than it was two days ago or two days from now. And I do wonder whether had it happened on Sept. 10 or Sept. 12, it would be quite the same. "Nine ten" doesn't have the same ring as "nine eleven" for whatever reason.

And I'd rather have no story in the paper at all than to make a few bucks off it, like the WSJ did. Nothing says class like mawkish sentimentality from a bank that got billions in taxpayer funds, four years before the first responders on 9/11 got the treatment for their cancer covered.

 

[buckweaver]

Hell, I've been at a paper where we got annoyed readers when we didn't put Pearl Harbor on the cover.

Military town, right?

Oh my god, your ears will receive a verbal guilt trip beyond belief if you don't display proper reverence in the newspaper on 12/7 AND 12/8. Every year.

(And as a history buff who has a much stronger personal/family connection to Pearl Harbor than to 9/11, I completely understand their sentiments. But I don't think I was prepared for that level of backlash.)

 

[Norrin Radd]

My parents weren't in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, so when my mom told me about how she remembers them breaking into her Topeka, Kan. elementary school class with an announcement, I told her to shut the **** up.

One person died in Dealey Plaza.

Thousands lost loved ones on 9/11.

So, yeah, other than that, totally similar.

But if you want to be one of those people from some insignificant burg (Hellooo, Kansas!) who thinks they have a 9/11 story to tell that compares to those told by those involved, you just go right ahead.

 

[deskslave]

Hell, I've been at a paper where we got annoyed readers when we didn't put Pearl Harbor on the cover.

Military town, right?

Oh my god, your ears will receive a verbal guilt trip beyond belief if you don't display proper reverence in the newspaper on 12/7 AND 12/8. Every year.

(And as a history buff who has a much stronger personal/family connection to Pearl Harbor than to 9/11, I completely understand their sentiments. But I don't think I was prepared for that level of backlash.)

It wasn't, actually. I don't honestly remember which stop it was, or if it was more than one. In either case, it would have been somewhere with a high proportion of seniors.

 

[KYSportsWriter]

My parents weren't in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, so when my mom told me about how she remembers them breaking into her Topeka, Kan. elementary school class with an announcement, I told her to shut the **** up.

One person died in Dealey Plaza.

Thousands lost loved ones on 9/11.

So, yeah, other than that, totally similar.

But if you want to be one of those people from some insignificant burg (Hellooo, Kansas!) who thinks they have a 9/11 story to tell that compares to those told by those involved, you just go right ahead.

I think you're missing Pilot's point.

 

[Mark2010]

I always get the major news of my lifetime second-hand. Reagan shooting, Oklahoma City bombing, Olympics bombing, OJ Simpson verdict, 9/11, whatever.

I can sit and watch CNN all day and the best they can do is some cat stuck in a tree. But the second I turn off the TV and go do something else, all hell breaks loose. Guess I'll be glued to the set on Dec. 21, 2012 just in case.

 

[DanOregon]

I think there is a place for it - but too often the only news angle is the calendar. As we've seen, there is new "stuff" coming out about 9/11 between Eichenwald's book and the cost of the memorial and museum.
I think editors like anniversary stories because it is one of the few stories they can plan in meetings. Eventually 9/11 will become like Pearl Harbor and JFK, a picture with a caption of the wreath laying in Hawaii; a few Kennedys kneeling in front of the eternal flame.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

There are probably only a few moments of our life where you remember exactly where you were when you found out...

For me it was Reagan getting shot, the Challenger, Oklahoma City, Columbine and 9/11.