Running Toward Danger: Stories Behind the Breaking News of September 11

by Newseum

Overview

From The Newseum, America's first interactive museum of news, comes the definitive book detailing behind-the-scenes stories of how journalists covered the deadly assaults of September 11, 2001. Three kinds of people instinctively run toward danger—firefighters, police officers, and journalists. Collected here are dramatic first-person stories of more than 100 reporters and photographers who raced to the scenes of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in rural Pennsylvania. With a moving foreword by NBC News Anchor Tom Brokaw, Running Toward Danger is arranged along a chronological timeline of the day and is illustrated with more than 100 photographs, many of them rarely seen. The book documents how journalists overcame daunting logistical and emotional challenges to report to a shaken world the implications of the new century's most terrifying moment. It includes intimate details about the marathon high-wire work of the network anchors and the harrowing stories of ordinary journalists who put themselves in harm's way to report the story. The book provides an enduring record of a turning point in world history, a book that future generations will rely on for insights about how news was conveyed to a shattered world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742523166
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	07/16/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	7.42(w) x 10.26(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

The Newseum is moving to Washington, D.C., where it is expected to reopen in 2006. During nearly five years of operation at its location in Arlington, Virginia, the Newseum hosted more than 2.2 million visitors. At its new home on Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, N.W., the Newseum will more than double in size and will offer enhanced experiences with exhibits, artifacts and interactives to take visitors behind the scenes of news as never before. The Newseum is funded by the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. Cathy Trost, an award-winning journalist and author, was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Detroit Free Press and United Press International. She is the founding director of the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families at the University of Maryland College of Journalism and is on the board of the Alicia Patterson Foundation. Alicia C. Shepard is senior writer for American Journalism Review and writes for Washingtonian magazine. She twice has won the National Press Club's media criticism award and has received the Barth Richards Media Criticism Award from Penn State University. She worked as a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and Scripps League newspapers. Tom Brokaw, NBC Nightly News anchor since 1983, presides over one of America's most watched evening newscasts. He has covered every presidential election since 1968 and has interviewed a host of presidents and heads of state. The winner of many awards, he wrote The Greatest Generation, a best-selling account of the generation that grew up during the Depression and fought in World War II.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 8:53 a.m.—AP NewsAlert: New York—Plane crashes into World Trade Center. Chapter 2 9:09 a.m.—AP NewsAlert: New York—Plane crashes into second WTC tower. Chapter 3 9:31 a.m.—AP NewsAlert: Sarasota, FL—Bush calls WTC crashes apparent terrorist attack. Chapter 4 9:43 a.m.—AP NewsAlert: Washington—An Aircraft has crashed into the Pentagon. Chapter 5 10:07 a.m.—AP Flash: New York—One World Trade Center tower collapses. Chapter 6 10:29 a.m.—AP Flash: New York—Second World Trade Center tower collapses. Chapter 7 11:19 a.m.—AP Bulletin: New York—In Pa., a larged plane believed to be a 747 crashed. Chapter 8 12:23 a.m.—AP NewsAlert: Police Official says casualties could be in the thousands. Chapter 9 3:28 p.m.—CNN: New York—Giuliani says public transportation is restored. Chapter 10 5:25 p.m.—Reuters NewsAlert—47-story 7 World Trade Center collapses. Chapter 11 8:33 p.m.—AP NewsAlert: Bush says "Thousands of lives suddenly ended." Chapter 12 10:27 p.m.—AP NewsAlert: New York—Mayor says some people alive in Trade Center

Editorial Reviews

What makes these stories all the more compelling is that none of the newspeople knew when they came to work that morning that an assignment full of deadly risk waited for them, not in some distant battle-scarred place, but very close to home.

Lou Boccardi

Great events bring out the best in people. This is a marvelous sampling of how outstanding journalists responded to the tragedy of September 11.

David S. Broder

An adrenaline rush of insight into what journalists do—and why.

James M. Naughton

On September 11, fire and rescue workers were the first responders, helping thousands to safety, and journalists were the first witnesses, helping millions to understand. By putting aside their fear and 'running toward danger,' they reminded the world what bravery is. This book, like the tributes to our firefighters from across the country and around the world, is a reminder that heroes are often hidden in plain sight, doing the work that is essential to America as we know it.

Nicholas Scoppetta

This book tells one of the most important stories of the century—a story that changed not only the landscape of New York, but also the way people here in America and throughout the world view life. What other spot would a photojournalist rather be in?

Wendy Doremus

This book recognizes the media's crucial role in contributing to restoring the nation's confidence in the face of horrific tragedy.

Edward Plaugher

The heroic acts of New York's firefighters would never have been documented without the courageous coverage of journalists who knew instinctively that they were writing a tragic chapter in America's history.

Peter L. Gorman

"I'm across the street from the South Tower when all of a sudden it collapses: It starts to disintegrate piece by piece. I started to bring my camera up to my eyes but something said to me, 'Just run, just run.' I've never run away from an assignment in more than 20 years of doing this, but running from that saved my life." The first-person September 11th accounts of photographer David Handschuh and his news colleagues show us the dangers that media people were exposed to that day and make us grateful that they held their ground so long. This deeply moving book opens with a foreword by Tom Brokaw.

The media juggernaut that brought us O. J. and Chandra-gate rose to the occasion in a "heroic fashion" on September 11, writes Brokaw in his apt foreword to this collection of oral histories by journalists who covered the terrorist attacks. In these short and piercing reminiscences, reporters, photographers, editors and producers race to Ground Zero, penetrate police cordons, dodge falling skyscrapers, patch together cell-phone links and search out all-night film-processing stores to bring us the story of the millennium. The book is not without self-congratulation ("journalists...calm and inform a terrified nation"), defensiveness (especially over the horrific "jumper" photos of office workers plummeting to their deaths), or Dan Rather's oddness ("I drank...some kind of a protein drink. I don't want to be chewing on the air"). But it vividly conveys the stop-the-presses freneticism-and real achievement-of news organizations in quickly extracting hard information and a coherent story from the chaos. The many close-up photos of explosions and carnage-still with the power to shock and awe-remind us of the nerve of those who crept close enough to snap them. Many pictures by freelance photographer William Biggart, the only journalist killed while reporting the story, appear within. (Sept.) Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

9/11 The Newseum, an interactive museum of news located in Arlington, VA, was operating as usual on September 11, 2001. After seeing smoke billowing from the ravaged Pentagon, its staff members immediately closed the museum and worked through the night assembling an exhibit of wire service photos from around the world. This book is the outgrowth of that initial exhibit. What sets it apart from the plethora of books on 9/11 is its focus. Told chronologically through 100 first-person vignettes and 75 powerful color and black-and-white photographs, the book covers the varied experiences of members of the press. Big-name anchors weigh in, but the stage belongs to the reporters and photographers who usually work behind the scenes. Authors Trost, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and Shepard, award-winning media critic, provide a firsthand and very human look at the process behind the coverage, revealing how the immediacy of ongoing television and Internet coverage helped journalists, photojournalists, and anchors shape a nation's perception of a tragically unique day. A valuable addition, especially to school libraries. Audrey Snowden, formerly with Clark Univ., Worcester, MA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal