Pix courtesy: The Week

The debate between the two CNN network heads lasted ten seconds. "Is it appropriate for us to use the phrase America Under Attack on the screen?" asked one. "Well what the hell else is this?" was the response. It was not a day for discussion on the finer points of journalism. I have been in BBC newsrooms as the Challenger Shuttle blew up, as the Berlin wall fell, as the first searing pictures from Ethiopia and its famine were broadcast.

And of course, 10 years ago when the US and its allies started to bombard Baghdad.

And then in 1997, I stood in a control room at CNN as confirmation came that the Princess of Wales had died in Paris.

But none of this prepared me for the look of horror on my colleagues‘ faces and the stunned silence as that second aircraft slammed into the World Trade Center yesterday. And then came the news that a third aircraft had hit the Pentagon and a fourth Boeing 757 had come down somewhere near Pennsylvania.

Pix Courtesy: CNN.com

Even with the experience CNN has gained in 21 years, this unprecedented terrorist attack against the United States tested even our resources

Here at CNN‘s Atlanta headquarters, the first airliner crashed into the World Trade Center during our morning editorial conference - when representatives from all CNN channels and services come together to plan their broadcast day. Within minutes the News Group‘s US and oversees services - 35 across television, internet, radio and mobile phones, in numerous languages, available to almost a billion people - were covering the tragedy. We decided that one single CNN channel should broadcast to all audiences around the world.

The descriptions used on and off air in those first few hours of coverage seemed somehow inadequate. The worst terrorist attack on America ever. The worst assault since Pearl Harbour? The largest modern day media operation since the coverage of the Gulf War?

Even with the experience CNN has gained in 21 years, this unprecedented terrorist attack against the United States tested even our resources. The logistics of getting staff to New York and Washington literally became a road race, as airports across America shut down. But we were able to fulfill our obligations, not just to the CNN family of networks who turned to us for help. This was not a day for the competitive edge. People take for granted that CNN was first in America and around the world with the story - and it was. They take for granted that the first live pictures and subsequent reportage was the best.

Our coverage was immediately made available to all news organizations, those under contract and those who were not.

CNN has undergone some painful - and necessary - restructuring in the past year. More than 400 colleagues, 10 per cent of the workforce, have been made redundant. Yet on Tuesday dozens of those laid off rang to offer their newsgathering services. Others just turned up.

Amidst the madness of yesterday‘s atrocity, many of us found that a very humbling experience.

CHRIS CRAMER
President International Networks
CNN.

Horrific. Ghastly. Dastardly. Inhuman. Unbelievable. Catastrophic. Deadly. Words that have been used to describe the airplane attacks on the World Trade Centre I and II - two icons of the New York landscape and US economic power - and the heart of American defence - the Pentagon.
The world has watched the devastation that has reshaped the Manhattan skyline, and has gasped in horror at the carnage, the uncounted loss of human life. All because of the power of satellite television. Professional cameramen and TV journalists have tailed the rapid developments. Even laymen have contributed their mite through their amateur efforts at filming the sequence of events using handycams.

Obviously, whoever is behind the attacks was seeking maximum impact. Hundred per cent attention globally to the shaming of America and its high falutin anti-terrorism security measures. The world has watched as the centre of capitalism has been brought to its knees, bloodied in ways that will take a long time to heal.

The idea was also to cause paralysis, panic, fear globally. And also elicit a response. Possibly an irrational response.

Images of balls of flame exploding off long-lasting structures as planes slammed into them. Images of those pillars of strength crashing down as if they were made of wet sand were flashed around the world courtesy television.

Television acted as a uniting force as we all grieved over the heinous acts. In some corner of the globe, a group of people would in all possibility be grinning in delight at the Maximum Impact they generated. We may never get to see those images.

But we may well get to see pictures of them much later when they have been blasted off the face of the earth; disintegrated into smithereens, should the world choose to fight back against the perpetrators of the act. Which a rather weak looking President George W Bush Jr has said will happen.

Television channels have all reacted differently while providing coverage of America under attack. Networks such as CNN, CNBC, chose to continue to follow the developments without inserting advertising. The entire affair was of a magnitude beyond commercial considerations. There was a time when CNN would place commercials on its channel, and charge what it wanted, according to industry sources. That has changed over the past couple of years.

Indian news channels Zee, Star and Aaj Tak too kept abreast of developments. But they chose this morning to sprinkle their coverage with TV commercials. Mammon it seemed had the upper hand even in the time of tragedy. After all, it‘s not every day that you get audiences rivetted to news channels continuously.

The next few days are going to see news channels continuing to capture viewers‘ eyeballs. Hopefully, the commercials will not detract from the mood of the moment. And ad sales teams at the channels will maintain some decorum and decency.

It is a moment for all of us to pause. And for the powers-that-be in India to wake up to possible attacks sometime in future. 1992 happened. It should not be allowed to happen again.

ANIL WANVARI,
CEO, INDIANTELEVISION.COM