20 years ago we were getting ready for a busy day. My husband was working out in the basement, I was getting ready for a video production session, and the dogs needed breakfast.
When the first plane hit, we thought it was an accident. When the second plane hit and video images were on every channel we knew it was more. My husband is a working journalist and I’m a former reporter, so we instantly were monitoring several channels on different TVs. Remember, this was before Facebook and social media were ubiquitous.
I clearly remember saying to him “you better get into the shower because I think you’re going to have to go in early to the station.” Only minutes later the news director called back and asked him to come into work as soon as possible. That was the start of a marathon news cycle that lasted weeks.
That week, journalists in our region worked endless hours to report how the tragedy was affecting Northeast Wisconsin. Stories on loved ones who were stranded overseas when air travel stopped. Stories about emergency response teams from our area going to New York. Stories about families with active duty military who had no idea what would happen next. Stories about the virtual halt in business in different sectors of the economy.
My friends in the media were burnt out in a matter of days and many needed to unplug and recharge their internal batteries. Most of what journalists do on a daily basis is mundane—government meetings, police blotter reports, a fire, or a business report. But at this time, everything was breaking news.
Today the media is lambasted regularly as being purveyors of fake news or biased reporting. But at that time, the media was working overtime to check facts, get the most updated information, and share stories with a very frightened nation. The possibility of war was real, and the fatigue and stress of the news showed on the reporters and anchors.
I’ve always said live TV is akin to the operating room or a police scene—anything and everything can happen with no warning. At this time it did and even local journalists had a front seat to history.
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