The September 11th attack — After Deadline
Tragedy presented newsroom challenges
By John E. Simonds
Advertiser Reader Representative
Apart from meeting a professional challenge in the pursuit of breaking history, news people probably could do without another day like Tuesday or the ones that followed. But the story is far from over, and the mission to serve Hawai'i's readers continues.
Advertiser editors and staffers were at work and in focus early Tuesday, many in the newsroom hours before dawn, quietly and seriously preparing an Extra edition that would pull together and present the alarming news of crashing hijacked airplanes taking out the World Trade Center in New York City, damaging the Pentagon in northern Virginia, and killing untold numbers in both places and also in western Pennsylvania.
The Advertiser Extra, headlined "U.S. UNDER ATTACK" in 2-inch-high letters, was a late morning version of Tuesday's paper, displaying news and photos of the day's devastation. Of 29,000 copies printed, more than 26,000 were sold. The PM edition, keeping the Extra! headline, was updated to reflect later news for home subscribers. (The Advertiser's last previous Extra edition, Dec. 19, 1998, was headlined "CLINTON IMPEACHED.") Dozens of Mainland newspapers also published Extra editions, meeting demands of readers everywhere for details of the spreading story.
The Advertiser has appreciated the comments of readers calling and e-mailing encouragement through the week.
The Advertiser responded as it has in other dramatic coverage of recent years—the Ehime Maru sinking, the Xerox slayings, the Sacred Falls rockslide. But while those tragedies happened here and required more local reporting, few stories — local or long distance — presented the shifting aspects of Tuesday's story and its aftershocks.
It set off a range of topics — the human interest in thousands lost in airplanes and high-rise towers, the mystery of who did it, world political implications, airline industry and airport security issues, the impact on a Hawai'i suddenly cut off without air service, Pearl Harbor comparisons, Middle East terrorism and President Bush's leadership.
The story continued Wednesday ("AMERICA'S BLOODIEST DAY") on several fronts, including reports of Hawai'i people among the dead or missing. The Advertiser devoted 22 additional pages to the coverage. By Thursday, identities of more Hawai'i people missing became known. Word of those in New York who had survived or were unaccounted for filtered home through families and friends. Reporters worked through the week to verify accounts with family members.
Hawai'i's time difference allows The Advertiser extra hours to consider content and photos of news services. With a half-dozen news services feeding reports, along with CNN and the networks to monitor, The Advertiser's news desk chooses among the latest in dispatches from elsewhere in the world.
On Friday morning's front page, The Advertiser led with a compilation of reports several news services filed about the removal and detaining of suspect passengers in New York. Later accounts said that all but one had been released and that, in essence, earlier reports had overplayed the importance of the incident. The Advertiser carried an Associated Press story explaining the detainees' release on Page A2 of its Friday PM edition.
Advertiser editors acknowledged the overplay was a result of pursuing the news in a time of heightened concern about national safety when competing news services are busily chasing events breaking on many fronts.
Sports events, including University of Hawai'i football and high school football, were among activities canceled early. Organizers of other events delayed decisions on canceling until Thursday or Friday. This created a problem for TGIF, which goes to press Wednesday night.
"They waited because it was difficult to know, or believe, that things would stay disrupted this long, because so much money and time had been invested, because it was hard to admit that life wouldn't go back to normal soon," said Wanda Adams, Advertiser features editor. "And it seemed as though the reality hit everyone at the same time.
"On Thursday, with copies of the pre-printed TGIF section sitting on our desks, the phone, fax and e-mail brought us the news of the cancellation of one after the other of the events we'd profiled in feature stories and included in our listings," she said. This happened despite Advertiser phone calls to prompt decisions from event organizers right up to Wednesday's deadline. The Advertiser announced the event schedule changes Friday.
