The Left Lane
Sitting it out

For once, says newsman Bernard Shaw, 61, he's glad to not be part of the Big Story. "I can give vent to my emotions. I've been doing a lot of crying over the murder of thousands of my fellow citizens. I could not do that if I were at CNN."

Shaw, perhaps most famous for co-anchoring CNN's coverage of the 1991 U.S. bombing of Baghdad, from the Al Rashid Hotel, predicts TV coverage this time around won't resemble anything we saw in the Gulf War.

It won't be quick, and it won't be all in one place, and there may not be many visuals because news people won't have access — the government already has said that it intends to be very secretive about its operations and not give America the TV war of 10 years ago, Shaw said.

Shaw, who is semi-retired, assured his wife and daughter that he'll sit this one out. "They made me promise that I would not go in to work if I were asked to go in to work — and I did," he said.

Calling for help

Stricken by anxiety and pain after last week's horrors, thousands of Americans are asking for mental health help — many for the first time.

Therapists are reaching out to help the emotionally wounded. They are walking down Wall Street and through airport terminals dressed in Red Cross volunteer gear. They're staffing national and local hotlines, moderating Internet chats and seeing clients in offices.

The American Red Cross reports 16,348 mental health-related "contacts," mostly in-person encounters with the public, since last Tuesday. "It started slowly but then increased dramatically," says Red Cross spokesman Darren Irby. "People were in shock at first. Now the reality of what's happened is setting in."

Calls to a hotline run by the National Mental Health Association (800-969-6642) are up 30 percent. Most callers want local referrals.