Listen Here
Column By Amy Rogan, Assistant Professor of Teaching in Media and Communication
In September of 2001, I was the nightside Executive Producer at the Ohio News Network in Columbus, Ohio. ONN was the first 24-hour statewide cable news network and was a lot like Spectrum News 1 Ohio now.
On Sept. 11, 2001, my 5-year-old daughter was at school and my 2-year-old son and I were lying in bed watching Barnie.
Shortly before 9 a.m., my pager went off. (All managers had pagers in those days.) It said something like breaking news–a plane hit the World Trade Center in New York.
For us, it was big news, but it was in New York so not exactly big Ohio news.
I flipped the TV to MSNBC and watched Lester Holt deliver the news. No one was sure what it was and speculated it was a small plane that had an accident. But constant replay of the footage started to make it clear that this was not a small plane. And then another plane flew into the second tower. It was no longer a question, it was a statement: America was under attack.
I called my mother-in-law and asked her to come watch my son and I got ready to go to work at the TV station.
When my mother-in-law got to the house, I remember grabbing her and hugging her and saying “all those people.”
It was a phrase I would repeat to myself often that day, a day in which we produced 19 hours of live news coverage.
Most of the day was a blur. There were moments when we would each step away to shed some tears, then hop back into the action to make sure Ohioans were informed about what was happening to our country.
The third plane hit the Pentagon and Flight 93 flew into Ohio before it flew back out to Pennsylvania, where heroic passengers decided their plane would not be a weapon against their countrymen.
Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati are all home to a number of federal buildings, which were immediately evacuated and/or locked down. Mayors from all over the state were holding news conferences to let the local public know what the local response was to any other potential attacks on America.
Of course, Ohio is home to Wright Patterson Airforce Base. So we had to be aware of how Wright Patt was responding and assess the danger of it being a target as well. We learned throughout the day how many defense companies produce products for the U.S. Military; such as tanks in Lima. The number astounded us.
We had crews in Akron/Canton, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo and Dayton. While local stations were in network coverage we were on our own.
Things happened in the news industry that day that had never happened before. Media companies across the country put all video “up on the bird” (satellites) for free. And no “exclusive” tags were necessary on video. It was unheard of. We were no longer competing news stations and papers; we were ALL serving the country and we shared resources.
We took calls from viewers all day where our anchors and reporters talked to viewers who just needed to say something. Anything. One call I can’t forget is a young man who called in and said “I’m 17. But I’m signing up for the military as soon as I turn 18.”
(One of our sports anchors became a nightly call-in talk-show host for at least two weeks.)
We interviewed experts as well: aviation experts, engineering experts, terrorism experts, state and federal law makers.
I remember seeing members of Congress on the steps of the Capitol that day to make a statement about the attack. The event spontaneously broke into a moving rendition of “God Bless America.” Picture that– U.S. representatives and senators from all sides singing on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, together. It was the most beautiful version of the song I’ve ever heard.
In the weeks that followed we kept the phone lines open. People needed to be heard. We put together an interfaith panel of religious experts to talk about the role faith played in the tragedy and recovery. (Behind the scenes, we affectionately called them the God Squad.)
I remember the anchors who were on air for hours without a break. I remember a local media relations company sent several trays of sandwiches to our newsroom. As a company of mostly former journalists, they had an idea of what we were dealing with and just wanted to show support.
I remember the quiet skies. That Saturday, there was no OSU football game. But thousands of people packed the stands as the Dispatch company (the company that owned my station and several other media outlets) handed out flags for donations and the OSU stands became a sea of American flags. No planes flew over the stadium. It was eerie.
My husband and I worked one of the flag stations and I remember more than one young child bringing a jar full of coins to donate to the Red Cross and recovery efforts.
It’s been 25 years, and I’m in my second career now. But, like so many others, that Sept. 11 was a defining moment. It was also a reminder of what we are called to do as journalists: serve.
