25 years on, they haven't forgotten. How 9/11 changed these TV journalists' lives
Twenty-five years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, journalists who covered the event reflect on how the tragedy fundamentally changed their lives and professional perspectives. The absence of modern technology like smartphones at the time highlights the stark difference in how news was gathered and consumed.
Why it matters
The reflection serves as a historical account of a pivotal moment in journalism and the lasting psychological impact on those who documented the tragedy.
On Sept. 11, 2001, there were no smartphones and no social media. What the country watched that morning — a jet airliner crashing into the south tower of the World Trade Center, the ash rolling through the streets, the paper still falling in the afternoon — was through a television set and the journalists who had to deliver the unfathomable details. The jarring images shattered the peacefulness of a sunshine-filled late summer morning in New York. "Everything seemed so perfect," said MS NOW's Chris Jansing, reflecting on the moments before anchoring her network's continuous coverage. "It was another day of doing a job I loved, living in a city I loved." By nightfall, nearly 3,000 people were dead in lower Manhattan, at the Pentagon and in a field outside Shanksville, Pa.
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