Just Another Blog
Monday, March 11, 2002
 
I hope that you had a chance to watch 9/11 on CBS last night. If you didn't, you missed something spectacular. I am not sure that I can think of a better program that I have watched on TV - ever. The video that the two brothers were able to capture was simply incredible.

It was an eerie feeling watching Father Judge pacing through the lobby of tower one mumbling prayers to himself. You knew that you were watching the final moments of the man's life. Likewise, when the company first responded to the initial attack and they walked into the lobby of tower one, you felt a very strange feeling knowing that in a matter of an hour or so, it would all be decimated. When I found out what all of the intermittent crashing sounds were, I felt nauseous. It was truly a moving piece.

A big round of kudos too for CBS. They aired the two hour program with only three or four breaks - and they weren't really even commercials. I also appreciated the lack of censoring. In these days of high-tech audio-visual programming and editting tools, it would have been easy for the network to silence the numerous instances of swearing. But they didn't, and the piece was more realistic for it. I find it hard to believe though that the FCC let them get away with those words over and over during prime time. Honestly, I was surprised that there was not more swearing captured on film. I also suspect that the vomiting scene may have been a first for network television.

I feel certain that CBS will be encouraged enough by the public response to the documentary to replay it again in the near future. If they do, watch it.